The Winter Hero

By: James Lincoln Collier, Christopher Collier / Narrated By: Charlie Thurston

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Engaging and, uh, do kids like stories that are Informative…?!

Dude! Y’all should be so proud of me cuz here’s the deal:

I’m closer to 60 than to 50… and I love Kids audiobooks. And the occasional Fraught With Angst Teens stories. The problem? No embarrassment, no explanations; I like what I like. The thing is, I have a distressing tendency of judging and reviewing various Kids/YA stories based upon What Does It Do For Me As An Adult? You know, not taking into consideration how said stories would be received by their >ahem< INTENDED Audiences.

Which is obnoxious, I admit.

Here, however, with The Winter Hero, I reeeeally tried to take it all in, the writing, the narration, the story itself as crafted, as tho’ I was an exuberant youngun’ listening for the first time to a story with a young hero caught up in Shays’ Rebellion, around 1786 and 1787.

So first problem right there, and did you notice I noted Shays’ Rebellion As In: Whazza?! and 1786-1787 as in: Wait, WHEN?! Yup, a verrrry little known military action in a time long long loooong ago. Which can be done, certainly; it’s just that THAT’D better be some cherry writing, some action-packed scenes to move things MOST speedily along for younger audiences; or if the authors shoot for an older Kids audience: They’d truly better add some emotionally evocative experiences, some tension, p’raps a dilemma or two.

What we have: 1787, 13-year old Justin Conkey lives with his sister and her Revolutionary War Hero husband, Peter, and the oxen are being taken away for failure to pay a debt. Peter, ever a hothead, is ready to deck the Sheriff who’s Just Doing His Job. The time in history? Well, no longer subject to the British, farmers and small business owners are NOW subject to elites who lend money at ridiculous rates, tax the bejesus outta everyone, and who now own the court and legal system. Life is still truly hard; there’s taxation, but it costs way too much money to ensure fair representation.

Peter brews and stews, as do sooo many others in the vicinity in Massachusetts, but there’s a weeee bit of an opportunity to be had: Justin can go into servitude with the little family’s nemesis, Major Mattoon. Once ensconced on the premises, p’raps, maybe, he can overhear Things, discover Plans. So there’s a fair amount of tension whilst Justin is in Service, of: How on earth will he figure out how to do this? and How on earth is he going to do this without getting caught? Which is grand story-crafting! So Bravo!

But things soon go awry and our authors have Justin actually joining the rebels, of him excitedly seeking chances to become gloriously heroic, just like Peter. It means so much to him, but that’s when the writing starts to wane. You see, since ‘twould appear The Winter Hero is s’posed to educate maybe even more than entertain, a careful attention to dates is given, to the extent that the specific dates take the listener outta the story. Or was it just me?

Also on the plate is the narration by Charlie Thurston, one of a cast of THOUSANDS, wellll, SEVeral in The Cold Millions which was soooo well-done, each narrator selected with care and with consideration to talent. In that review, I couldn’t peg who he was, so actually that’s saying a lot cuz it means his narration was NOT jarring or ice-pick-to-the-ears inducing. Here? Well, he does Justin really well, but then it’s major vocal juggling to give each of the other characters a distinct voice. Serious juggling, no subtlety about it. Okay, that’s just when I got taken out of the story as an adult, but when I considered the age of the audience? Oh muuuuch better. After all, kids prefer a grand performance, with all its oft-times distracting theatrics. So I settled down a bit, knowing that really little kids might LOVE such narration. So, okay, Thurston… and huzzah with a little “h”.

What it all comes down to is that the grit-less, tho’ freezing and wintry, scenes of war? Much younger audience. The introduction of death in war, the Happily Ever After, the In Your Face Civics lesson at the end? Much younger audience. The names, dates, places? Only someone older could give a hoot, but the aforementioned caveats make that a No Go, soooo… make of all that what you will.

Me? Engaged and intrigued to the point I hit Wikipedia to address a post-Revolutionary War rebellion to see who was whom in actuality, and if Where was indeed Where All Occurred. Were I a little kid, however, yea high to an ant?

I think there’s not enough action, and there are too many words, which is kinda sorta unforgivable when you’ve got a good thing going.

Not a Booooo! but certainly not an Oh. My. GOSH!!! you have to get your kids to listen to this either…