Charlie Ashanti is the son of two scientists who are kidnapped as the result of a dramatic discovery they’ve made (the cure for asthma, which is rampant in this near-future world). Ten-year-old Charlie decides to go in search of them, and uses his ability to speak Cat (which he’s had ever since he was scratched by a leopard as a baby) to gain helpful information. The local cats of London point him in the right direction and even deliver messages from him to his parents and back. When Charlie finds himself aboard a floating circus that’s heading to Paris, he befriends the circus lions, who become his further accomplices. He’ll help them escape the circus as this first book in a trilogy draws to a close.
Zizou Corder is a mother/daughter writing team from England. This first collaboration in a proposed trilogy is set in the near future at a time when fossil fuel has nearly run out and respiratory diseases are epidemic. Charlie Ashanti comes home one day to find that his scientist parents have been kidnapped. Barely escaping the same fate, Charlie begins a search to find them. The adventure that follows includes bumbling villains, a floating circus, and, since it just so happens that Charlie can speak "cat," helping the circus lion break out and go on the lam. This engaging story is full of originality, snappy dialogue, and humor. Simon Jones couldn't be better; he displays a feather-light and well-timed comic delivery. It's clear he's enjoying himself as much as the listener does. D.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
--Publishers Weekly...
"(Narrator) Simon Jones compels listeners through the excitement with smooth pacing and a rhythm that sustains the perfect level of suspense."
--Booklist...
"(Jones's) imaginative presentation weaves together the florid vocabulary and intricate plot details as he brings diverse characters, human and animal, vividly to life."
About the Author
ZIZOU CORDER is the pen name for a mother-daughter team of authors. Louisa Young grew up in London and studied history at Cambridge. She has written another trilogy for adults featuring a belly-dancing, motorcycle-riding single mom (Baby Love, Desiring Cairo, and Tree of Pearls), as well as a non-fiction book, The Book of the Heart
her ten-year-old daughter, Isabel Adomakoh Young contributed plot and character details, some of which mirror her own life—like Charlie, thehero of Lionboy Isasbel is the child of an English woman and an African man and, also like Charlie, she suffers asthma.
The pen name Zizou Corder comes from Isabel's pet lizard, Zizu. They all live together in London.
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