Each Tuesday in May, our Education Partnerships Manager Amy Franks will select one free Audible audiobook and share her review along with a special guest kid listener. (As it turns out, Amy’s cat Fancy is also a fan of audiobooks — so she actually has TWO special guests!) This week’s guest kid listener is Jonah, a nine-year-old third grader.
This week’s recommendation:
Kid Normal Author: Greg James, Chris Smith Narrator: Greg James, Chris Smith Length: 6 hours 21 minutes Suggested age: Elementary – tween
Synopsis: When Murph Cooper rocks up to his new school, he can’t help but feel a bit out of his depth. And it’s not because he’s worried about where to sit, and making friends, and fitting in, or not knowing where the loos are.
It’s because his mum has enrolled him at a school for superheroes by mistake. And unlike his fellow students Murph has no special abilities whatsoever. But just because you don’t have superpowers, it doesn’t mean you can’t save the day….
Amy says:
Two radio personalities joined forces to create a story about a boy named Murph whose family moves often for his mom’s work, which means he has been to a LOT of schools. Murph’s new school in his new town is quite different from any of his old schools. His new school is a super secret school that he can’t even talk about with his own mother! The subjects there are not the usual ones like English or math. As if that isn’t odd enought, at his new school all of Murph’s classmates turn out to be really strange and he is the only normal kid there. It turns out this school is no place to be normal! With humor and adventure the authors weave a tale full of laughs, life lessons, friendship, and adventure. Give this one a listen and you’ll learn what it means to have a cape and that even “normal” kids can be heroes.
Jonah says:
This book is about a boy that goes to a school for superheroes even though he doesn’t have any superpowers. But he actually saved the school from an evil person. Some words I would use to describe this book are funny, serious, descriptive, evil, and mysterious. I think it was a great story! I liked it because it had a lot of neat things happening. I would recommend it to people who like suspense and mysteries. It does have superheroes in the story, but it doesn’t have any relationship to the Justice League or Marvel. There are some evil people (like a giant human wasp that calls himself Lord Nectar) that might be scary to younger children. There is some weird technology in the book so it could get a bit crazy in it. It is also very descriptive so some of the story is just describing things or people, and it is very long. From this book, I learned that you can be anything!
Kid listener rating:
