Audio of the Week--The Illmoor Chronicles, Book 1: The Ratastrophe Catastrophe (unbr.)
RSSFrom SLJ March 2005
Larry Cooperman, Jacksonville (FL) Public Library -- School Library Journal, 03/14/2005
3 cassettes. 4:56 hrs. Prod. by Listening Library. Dist. by Listening Library/Books on Tape. 2004. ISBN 1-8072-2079-5. $30.
Gr 5-8–In the humorous, adventurous vein of the Harry Potter and Redwall series, David Lee Stone’s first title of the Illmoor Chronicles (Hyperion, 2004) takes place in a distant, magical, quasi-medieval land populated by giants, gnomes, dwarves and, of course, scheming human beings. The city of Dullitch is plagued by an enormous horde of rats, and an illiterate shepherd boy, Diek Wustapha, rids the city of them with the siren song of his magical flute. Flummoxed and angered by Dullitch’s ruler, the bumbling Duke Marmoset, to refuse payment for his good deed, Diek leads all of Dullitch’s children, in Pied Piper fashion, out of the city to mountainous terrain. A. team of mercenaries, made up of Gordo the dwarf, Tambour the magician, Groan the giant, and Jimmy Quickstint the robber, travel to the mountains and caves in search of Diek, the children, and a (hopeful) reward from Dullitch’s leader (don’t count on it!). Wonderfully narrated by BBC television veteran Robert Llewellyn, The Ratatstrophe Catastrophe comes crackling to life with humor, danger, and adventure. Listeners will eagerly await the second book in this masterful series.
