What Hearts

Bruce Brooks's 1995 Newbery Honor book is a complex depiction of a young man trying to come to terms with life after his parents' divorce. John McDonough narrates Asa's story with the objective tone of an interested but emotionally distant bystander. He makes the often- obnoxiously precocious boy sympathetic as he relates Asa's love-hate relationship with his stepfather, Dave, and the challenges of 10 moves and new schools by age 11. This is the story of the dynamics of an uneasy blended family and its toll on an intelligent, insightful boy who puzzles over his own lack of empathy. McDonough makes this work accessible to young listeners, who might lose their way amid the story's psychological complexity in print. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

November 2, 1992
Quieter but no less penetrating than Brooks's futuristic No Kidding , this present-day saga traces the formative years of Asa, who has spent most of his life moving from one town to another with his emotionally fragile mother and bullying stepfather. Like the protagonist of No Kidding , Asa takes on the role of protector as he chooses to make sacrifices in order to save his mother's marriage or prevent her from falling into a depressive state. Effectively revealing the psychological burdens of an intelligent, sensitive child, this book remains honest and intense from beginning to end. Asa's isolation and mental batterment by his stepfather create somber undertones, yet the book does offer some uplifting moments (Asa's first experience with romance, for example), which illustrate how spiritual renewal can occur under even the grimmest conditions. Ages 10-up.

Asa's story, complex, heart-breaking and quietly inspiring, is given a characteristically gentle, leisurely reading by John McDonough, which both enhances and complements the text. The novel offers a quartet of snapshots of the circumstances of a young boy's life and his hard-won emotional development from first through seventh grade. The close third-person narrative of this Newbery Honor Book requires a reading reflective of Asa's own unfolding awareness and growing wisdom as the structure of his life repeatedly collapses through two divorces and more moves than he can count. The strength of McDonough's reading comes from the unfailing equanimity in his voice, so reflective of Asa's own even temperament and open heart. T.B. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine