The Grand Escape

It takes the smooth, calm voice of narrator Simon Vance to keep the listener from feeling claustrophobic during this nonfiction narrative of survival and escape from POW camps during WWI. The author writes these stories in a documentary style, with little to no dialogue, so Vance's delivery of the unjust and inhumane conditions gives the listener just enough distance to keep going. Because Vance tells the stories as they happened, with no extreme emotion, the listener, like the characters, perseveres. Had he narrated with more passion, the listener likely would be overwhelmed by the conditions these men faced. This Young Adult version of the audiobook will make young listeners wish Vance could read all their history books. A.R.F. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine