Clarice the Brave

By: Lisa McMann / Narrated By: Alexa Magro

Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins

NOT flat-out grand; but jeez… Wound up sobbing a time… or two…

Gonna get the narration outta the way here at the beginning cuz it’s like this, see. Alexa Magro is new to me, nary another audiobook in my Library by her, never heard her voice before, soooo…

OUCH!

High-pitched, like she’s about six-years old. BeYONd squeaky… did NOT know if I was going to make it through almost 6-hours of story. Yeh okay, this story is about a mouse, so, uhm, huzzah? for incredibly squeaky? And yeh okay, this is a story for kids, so, uhm, huzzah? for choosing a narrator who’s managed to get past kiddie years and can handle all facets of a story… whilst sounding sooo young?

But Big Sis listened to this as well, and she pointed out that, yes: young. But also: main narrative NOT enTIREly squeaky.

Yeh, this is where I put a “small h” huzzah in yet again and follow it with a definite “?”. -BUT- I googled her, and I discovered she was teased for the sound of her voice prior to learning how to make it work FOR her. So Boooo! me for questioning/wanting to jam an ice pick into m’ right ear at the very beginning.

Onto the story, shall we?

Clarice and her brother Charles Sebastian are the two surviving members of their mouse family. All they’ve ever known is Life On A Ship and all that THAT entails. Unfortunately, all THAT entails just happens to also involve, well, what they overhear: Mutiny. The Captain is a harsh and brutal man, his discipline unforgiving, his methods unforgivable. And so? In the chaos of a Mutiny that’s swung into action, Clarice and Charles Sebastian are separated. When Special Lady, the Captain’s dastardly pet cat takes advantage of all hell breaking loose, she spies Charles Sebastian who has a tendency towards Flight rather than Freeze. He makes himself an easy mark, and the big orange cat dashes after her newly sighted prey as it runs helter skelter hither and thither.

As the Captain is bound and tossed into a small and unstable boat, as his loyalists are gathered up and chucked in beside him, so too are victuals gathered to toss into the soon-to-be dispatched group. Alas, Clarice (Who’s totally into Freeze as opposed to Flight or Fight), is swept up along with the sack of coffee beans that’s been Home, and she flies into the boat. Just as the boat is set off, two things happen: She hears Charles Sebastian, who was NOT killed by Special Lady, calling for her in desperation, -and- Special Lady, as the much-loathed Captain’s pet, is sent flying into the launch as well.

Mouse v. Cat, nowhere to run, very few places to hide. On a leaky vessel with few resources. This is where author Lisa McMann’s best story crafting begins: Special Lady is no longer a beloved pet; she’s just another mouth to feed, and she ain’t human sooo? Clarice decides early on to swipe pieces of dried fish to eat… and to give pieces of it to Special Lady as well. Because, you see, a fed cat is not a cat who’ll be scarfing her any time soon.

Or so she hopes, and that’s the plan.

What follows, through the trials and tribulations of rapidly devolving conditions in the little boat, is the beginning of a truly unlikely relationship between mouse and cat. One which, as McMann develops it ever so slowly, is questioned (Faaaaar too repeatedly by Clarice) but soon blossoms into a truly wonderful friendship..

Meanwhile, back on the ship, in third-person, Charles Sebastian, who’s been timid and fearful his whole life, has to somehow survive on his own. There are still feet to dodge, hungry and mean chickens to avoid, and food and water to somehow find… all by himself, all whilst missing Clarice so terribly. He comes across a young girl, bound and shackled in a cell on deck, and he swipes her hard, definitely rock-like, biscuit, dumps her grog over for a drink… and somehow, the two, she in her loneliness, he in his fear but willingness, form a bit of a friendship themselves.

The story goes back and forth between Clarice’s first-person experiences with humans not to be trusted (And with Special Lady developed as The MOST Lovable Character in the entire book!) and Charles Sebastian’s third-person. What I liked was that BOTH Clarice and Charles Sebastian question their long-held beliefs: Clarice in that Freezing is the Only Way to respond to situations; Charles Sebastian in that sometimes Holding Still is the braver and actually more doable action to take. Along the way, yes yes yes, Charles Sebastian grows up and develops a certain brand of strength and independence… and…

Clarice discovers that she’s been a judgmental toad about Charles Sebastian’s choices the whole time (NO offense to toads!). Then too, in a truly desPICable moment, Clarice chooses the exact way NOT to act, and she does some Flight-ing that’s reprehensible and is practically unforgivable.

Cue the sobs for me right there, and for several scenes afterwards…

Definitely for a younger audience, Clarice the Brave has some good lessons that any kidlet could benefit from: That there’s room to trust and to question norms; that grief is difficult but survivable; that courage and bravery take many forms, and that friendship is sooo worth building and trusting.

Okay, so I’m not giving this a Mighty HUZZAH, but Special Lady was awesomely crafted and had some special and memorable scenes. Clarice? Well, one wants to clobber her now and again. And Charles Sebastian grows in a manner that any child would do well to emulate (Of course, McMann writes one scene where he basically blames his family for his lack of strength of character in the past, and that’s always such a Boooo! for me, but there you are).

And narrator Alexa Magro?

My apologies for the ice pick comment, esPECially as I put it back in the junk drawer the longer the narrative went on…