You know a book will be good when you are already laughing on page one. On a road trip to Huntsville, I recently finished listening to the audio book If A Tree Falls At Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko. It started like this: “This is lame, but I’m actually looking forward to school this year because everyday this summer was like crap. Dog crap. Cat crap. I even had a few elephant crap days. Trust me it was bad…”

I have also read Al Capone Does My Laundry by Choldenko and I must say that after these two books I feel the need to rush out and see what else she has written. I greatly enjoyed this audio book. I was especially impressed with the full cast multiple narrators. Ariadne Meyers and Francois Battiste read this story, which has alternating chapters narrated by the main characters Kristen and Walker. This is an effective narration since I felt like I really got to know the unique characteristics of each main character. I think if it had been told only in Kristen’s voice, the story would not have had such an impact on me. Both narrators’ voices were clear and engaging. I listened to this audio book in two sittings for a total of about four and a half hours playing time. It was very enjoyable and if I had not been sleepy, I probably would have finished it in one sitting. The narration was very well done. I did not observe any intakes of breath or speech particularities. I thought the narrators did a good job representing the dialect for their ethnicities. Walker is African American and has grown up going to an inner city school, however he is very intelligent. Battiste does a good job of portraying his roots but maintaining his articulate way of speaking. This makes Walker seem smart but down to earth and street smart. Meyers narration of Kristen makes her sound sweet, but at times like a whiny White rich girl. This is accurate to Kristen’s character. When I first heard Meyers voice, I thought “Oh no. I’m not going to be able to take listening to this high pitched whiny girl’s voice.” But, Kristen is so likeable that she grows on you and you get past her voice. Both narrators matched their voices well to their character’s age, race and attitude.

The pace of the recording was very relaxed and easy to follow. It was not too slow, but progressed at an appropriate pace. The narrators did change pace to make some scenes more dramatic, like when Kristen is angry with her mom about interfering on her problems with her ex-friend Rory. There was introductory and concluding music that played in the background during the first thirty or so seconds. The music was mellow acoustic music; it was a relaxing way to set the mood for the book. I liked the way it faded away as the story got underway. It sounded professional and did not distract from the story. There were not any other sound effects during the narration.

At the start of each chapter the narrators announce “Kristen” or “Walk” and begin their character’s chapter. This makes it very easy for the listener to follow along. I appreciated the predictable format of Kristen then Walk repeating again and again. There was not any introductory material, appendices or advertising. All material in the text was included in the audio version. The packaging matched the cover of the book; it had an attention grabbing picture of a large uprooted tree drifting into the air. It had a sturdy inner case containing four CDs in sleeves. Tracks were about two to three minutes long. This make for easy stopping. The sound quality was clean and clear, with white noise consistent throughout. The sound level was also consistent throughout the recording. Editing was well done as well. Overall I highly recommend this audio book.