Meet the Gecko

When the narrator truly sounds the age of the main character, the listening experience takes on a whole new dimension. Daniel Young could be Nolan, the boy who doubles as the cyberhero Shredderman. Young's youthful voice brings an immediate intimacy to the action as he narrates at a fast clip. His characters are seen from a boy's perspective--classmates are animated; bully Bubba Bixby speaks in a slow monotone; Nolan's dad is exuberant and boyish; his mother, mercurial. As this third episode unfolds, Nolan is treated by his father, a newspaper reporter, to a birthday visit with his favorite TV superhero, The Gecko, and his sidekick, Sticky. Can the new friends join forces "in the battle for truth and justice" to rid the newspaper world of an untrustworthy reporter? A.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

January 10, 2005
Long-awaited sequels and favorite characters return in a slew of novels this winter. Continuing the action-packed series begun with Shredderman: Secret Identity, which PW hailed as "a one-man Revenge of the Nerds for the elementary crowd," Wendelin Van Draanen returns with Shredderman: Meet the Gecko, illus. by Brian Biggs. Here Nolan (aka Shredderman) meets his hero-or should one say, superhero-Chase Morton, who plays The Gecko on TV. But Chase is being chased, and Nolan is determined to expose the stalker on Shredderman.com. .