TITLE: I'm In Love AUTHOR: Tavia DATE: 6/22/2008 10:20:00 AM ----- BODY:
I have to admit something.

I've fallen in love with someone new. Actually four new people.

I'm in love with Sophie. And Aunt Al. And Andrew. And Bernard Cribbins.

All weekend I've been listening to audiobooks in the Sophie series of charming children's books written by Dick King-Smith. (You can purchase the printed or recorded books here or download the audiobooks here.)

I know these are children's books, and now - at my great advanced age of 31, perhaps I should be listening only to serious, weighty classics or "how to" business success books.

But I've read and listened to tons of those, and these are way more fun!


I met Sophie first as a four-year-old in Sophie's Snail, where she set forth her determination to someday become a "Lady Farmer," and care for her menagerie of animals, including a pig named Measles, hens named April and May, and a pony called Shorty. Sophie lives with her parents and her twin brothers, Matthew and Mark, whom she calls "mouldy, stupid, and assive." (This is a trilogy of insults I love and plan to adopt.)

Sophie's biggest supporter and greatest, greatest friend is her great-great, Scottish Aunt Al, who is in her 80's and as pragmatic, confident, and determined as little Sophie. With her highland brogue, she sounds like an angel.

Andrew is Sophie's best friend, the son of a farmer, and Sophie's future husband, according to Sophie, and together, he and Sophie make the most sensible, honest, and hilarious pair.

The wonderful Dick King-Smith, who wrote the story on which the movie Babe was written, penned the six Sophie stories. And all the narrations are performed by Bernard Cribbins, whose characterizations and dialogue are some of the best I've heard. Cribbins is Sophie; whomever cast him to narrate a series of children's stories in which the star of the show is a very little girl was daring and brilliant.

Cribbins perfectly narrates what Puddles the dog would say if he could only talk. He perfectly voices the various "eews" and "ughs" of the children when Sophie and Andrew arrive in the classroom with a bit of a farmyard "pong." He even slightly ages the twin brothers over the few years of the series, which is subtle and so lovely.

In preparation for narrating and producing a series of children's stories for a new children's audiobook publisher, Plain Tales, I've been listening to a lot of children's audiobooks, and I plan to keep spending time with great stories and fantastic narrators of children's stories. Children's books are so comforting and calming and hopeful. I hope that my work brings joy to my adult and child listeners, as my loves - Sophie, Aunt Al, Andrew, and especially Bernard Cribbins - are giving me.

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