Classic Starts®

January 2, 2012
This audio version of Shelley’s classic hits all the book’s emotional highpoints thanks to a terrific tag team of readers—a choice that is amply justified by the book’s structure: explorer Robert Walton’s correspondence with his sister; Victor Frankenstein’s narration of his life and misguided efforts to play God; and the infamous monster’s first-person account of how he made his way in the world. All three narrators are adept at modulating their tone to suit a scene’s mood—Roger May reads Walton’s sections, Daniel Philpott narrates Frankenstein’s, and Jonathan Oliver handles the monster’s sections—but the heavy lifting falls to Philpott, who conveys his character’s passion, ambition, and ultimate horror at what his creation has done, which includes an accidental killing that strikes the scientist very close to home. For any listener familiar only with filmed treatments of this seminal tale of terror, this is a good way to experience the original.

April 1, 2006
Gr 3-7 -Large print, short chapters, and an abundance of white space provide an attractive, more-accessible option for readers who are not ready to handle the originals. At best, this approach works as a vehicle to deliver the basic elements of the stories while providing an entertaining, simplified version of the classic at a lower reading level. After all, many of our cultural references would be lost on readers who don't know what Jekyll and Hyde represent, or what consequences the creator of Frankenstein faced. At worst, the sometimes-stilted language reads like awkward translations. What is missing, of course, is the very language that makes these classics so evocative of their time. Victorian London, for example, is captured so much more readily with the elegant and dramatic prose of Robert Louis Stevenson. If presenting -Classic Starts, - do so with a recommendation: when you are ready, read the originals. There can be no substitute." -Elizabeth Fernandez, Brunswick Middle School, Greenwich, CT"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
These inexpensive condensed versions of classic novels are quickly paced and competently told, with occasional black-and-white illustrations adding spice. Still, one wonders why the adaptations were created in the first place. Some tales (e.g., [cf2]Gulliver's Travels[cf1]) are already suited for children; others gain their depth from complexities of material and language, which is excised here for age-appropriateness.

(Copyright 2006 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)