Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
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Book Reviews of Listening for Lions
Book Review: Listening For Lions
Summary: 4 Stars
Listening for lions is a good book, but nothing about it is screams extraordinary. I found the story to be interesting in a way, but also quite predictable. After about the first 50 pages I could more or less guess what was going to happen in the rest of the book. The part I liked about this book is the telling of a different culture and life style in place unlike were I live.
This book in my opinion is one of those books that I can pick up, and not feel the need to finish it. If it was not on my school book list I probably would not have finished reading this book if I started it.
This is a good book though, and if you are in the mood for an easy read I suggest this, but Listening For Lions is not the type of book i feel everyone needs to read.
Book Review: A Good Book
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a book with strong morals. The narrative is told first person past tense, like the main character is telling you a story, which interesting. The story is interesting and gripping. My only complaint is that it is a little light, by that I mean not just short, but missing some introspection and depth that it could have had. But, all around this is a book with a good story and interesting characters, which makes it a good read.Book Review: Good for tweens.
Summary: 4 Stars
My daughter really liked this book. Only took her three days to read. It offers a unique perspective on how children live in other places in the world.Book Review: LISTENING FOR LIONS
Summary: 3 Stars
Maybe it's me, but I seem to be less enamored of this book than other reviewers. It's not a dud by any means, but there are problems with this book that makes me reconsider whether I should have my students read it or not.
I hate to start with constructive criticisms (or negative aspects, if you prefer), but I think the positives have been clearly identified by the other reviews posted here. Nevertheless, my three biggest problems with this YA novel [notice that I pointed out that this is a Young Adult book -- I feel this is very important in reviewing this novel] are that it is overwritten, filled with melodramatic characters, and the denouement is incredibly long.
In claiming LISTENING FOR LIONS to be overwritten, I mean that I found the inexhaustible number of similes, as well as the enormous number of animals and plants mentioned throughout the book seemed so inorganic that I felt like I should have been writing down each one as it is mentioned so that I could be impressed in the end that I had read about so many different examples of the natural world. Enough already! They are distracting from the flow of the writing, and that takes focus from the characters. If writing seems to force in facts or lists or bits of "clever creative writing" here or there, it destroys the beauty, the flow, the ease of the story.
Next, not all, but many of the characters are just too melodramatic. By this, I do not mean that they seem to over-react and seem to be right out of a soap opera. Instead, I mean that they are characterized by the definition of a "melodramatic" character; in other words, they don't change at all from beginning to end. Anyone who has read this book can easily see that Valerie's parents fit this description quite accurately. Their actions (as well as others) are highly predictable, and don't give the reader a sense that we are going to be surprised by anything...and, unsurprisingly, we aren't. It all seems to play out like a typical melodrama.
As for the denouement (or falling action), once we see or anticipate what the ending is going to be, the reader's patience begins to ebb when made to wait excessively. In this case, the final third of the book seems to go on forever. We know where Rachel is going to end up and now we have to wait for it, and wait for it, and wait for it...
I truly appreciate the clash of cultures set up in this book, but the basic difficulty I find with LISTENING FOR LIONS is that my students (well-read eighth-graders) will find this to be predictable, uninspiring or not effectively engaging -- particularly in comparison to the dozens of other books that they will be reading this year.
Sadly, this book has disappointed me because I don't see it as anything but a Young Adult novel. The best YA books I eagerly endorse and urge adults without kids to read (for example: AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS, SPEAK, CRISS CROSS, PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, THE GOLDEN COMPASS, ONCE UPON A MARIGOLD, the original THE SECRET GARDEN). This, I'm sorry to write, is not a YA book that is meant for anyone but kids.
Book Review: Intriguing setting, lackluster writing
Summary: 3 Stars
I really, really wanted to like Listening for Lions. The cover is beautiful, the title intriguing, and the plot sounded creative and full of possibility.
Unfortunately, I found the book to be tedious, the characters muddy and one-dimensional, and the actual story fell far short of my expectations.
The villains in this book truly are--greedy, scheming, hateful people who are furious about having been "exiled" to Africa. They're lazy, cruel, and have not a spark of humanity. (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here, but there are several instances when they could have shown glimmers of being real people, but didn't.)
Part of this one-dimensionality is a part of the first person voice (meaning it's hard to write in the first person and illuminate all the characters' motives), but it seems intentional here, and I think its a shortcoming.
The grandfather Rachel goes to live with isn't particular developed, either, nor is his staff, or really, anyone Rachel meets along the way.
The lack of character development might have been okay had Rachel been a more sympathetic character. Instead, she's wracked with guilt over the situation she finds herself in (that she really couldn't have done anything to change), homesick, and generally pretty whiny. I get the impression we're supposed to see her as heroic, a great storyteller with a plucky spirit, but instead, she seems pretty mousy to me, managing to make even a leopard attack seem sort of every day.
What redeems this book is the clarity of setting. The scenes in Africa are beautifully described and it's easy to picture yourself there in a completely different time. The scenes in England are similarly beautiful, and I liked that the author didn't seem to give extra care to writing one or the other. In fact, she did a really lovely job of imbuing Africa with an obvious sense of being Rachel's home without diminishing the English setting.
I'm not sorry I read it, it's a quick read, and of historical interest, but it could have been so much more, and I am disappointed in the end result. For the setting, I think it's worth the 3 stars and the time to read it, but it's definitely not a book I'll be keeping in my collection. This one's getting donated to the library.