Pay It Forward

What if a simple plan to make the world a better place came not from a room full of international decision-makers, but from a 12-year-old boy? Here's the plan: Choose three people for whom you will do a favor. They, in turn, will pass on a good deed to three others, and so on. Even more delightful than the premise is the full cast of characters narrating it. Debra Monk is a superb and reliable narrator. Notable in the cast for their realistic and believable performances are Leland Gantt (who has double roles) and Enid Graham. If there were an award for feel-good audiobook of the year, PAY IT FORWARD would certainly be a contender for the title. R.A.P. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 31, 2000
An ordinary boy engineers a secular miracle in Hyde's (Funerals for Horses) winning second novel, set in small-town 1990s California. Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney, the son of Arlene, a single mom working two jobs, and Ricky, a deadbeat absentee dad, does not seem well-positioned to revolutionize the world. But when Trevor's social studies teacher, Reuben St. Clair, gives the class an extra-credit assignment, challenging his students to design a plan to change society, Trevor decides to start a goodwill chain. To begin, he helps out three people, telling each of them that instead of paying him back, they must "pay it forward" by helping three others. At first, nothing seems to work out as planned, not even Trevor's attempt to bring Arlene and Reuben together. Granted, Trevor's mother and his teacher are an unlikely couple: she is a small, white, attractive, determined but insecure recovering alcoholic; he is an educated black man who lost half his face in Vietnam. But eventually romance does blossom, and unbeknownst to Trevor, his other attempts to help do "pay forward," yielding a chain reaction of newsworthy proportions. Reporter Chris Chandler is the first to chase down the story, and Hyde's narrative is punctuated with excerpts from histories Chandler publishes in later years (Those Who Knew Trevor Speak and The Other Faces Behind the Movement), as well as entries from Trevor's journal. Trevor's ultimate martyrdom, and the extraordinary worldwide success of his project, catapult the drama into the realm of myth, but Hyde's simple prose rarely turns preachy. Her Capraesque theme--that one person can make a difference--may be sentimental, but for once, that's a virtue. $250,000 ad/promo; BOMC and QPB alternates; 7-city author tour; film rights optioned by Warner Bros.

William Dufris's voice is warm, clear, and easy to listen to. He characterizes each person in this story, succeeding best with Reuben, the social studies teacher who gives an extra-credit assignment, and Trevor, the 12-year-old boy who takes it to heart: What can you do that will change the world? The story is sentimental at times, and Dufris sometimes overplays the women's voices, but we care very much what happens to Reuben and Trevor and his mother, Arlene, and we also catch a glimpse of a world in which even the most unlikely people do extraordinarily good things for others. P.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine