Author: Stephanie Tolan
Summary: It’s summer, but 12-year-old Charley feels she has nothing to look forward to. Her best friend has gone away to tennis camp and Charley is still grieving over the loss of her mother, a nature photographer who died two years earlier in a plane crash. To top it off, Charley is recovering from a car accident in which she injured her leg. Then one day Charley comes across a shy but intelligent stray dog who is terrified of people and desperately in need of some love. Charley decides to tame him and in the process comes to terms with her grief and learns to enjoy life again.
Number of pages: 197
Reading Level: 5.7
Rating: 8 stars
Kids: Yes, another dog book! This is a good story, but is slow moving and on the serious side. Listen! kept me interested, but there is not a lot of action or an exciting climax. Still, if you enjoy animal stories, you’d probably like this one.
Parents: This is a sweet, gentle story of healing as Charley learns to open her heart to the dog. The book contains powerful themes of nature, family and love. Charley’s grief for her mother is an integral part of the story, however, and may be difficult for younger readers to connect with or comprehend.
Teachers: While the readability level of Listen! is probably about 5.2, I scored it as 5.7 because of the mature themes of grief and recovery. Only advanced readers would understand the emotions Charley experiences throughout the book. The communication between Charley and Coyote could make an interesting literature circle discussion. I’m a big fan of Tolan’s Surviving the Applewhites, and though Listen! is worth reading, it doesn’t live up to her previous novels.
Awards:
2007 Christopher Award
Nominated for The 2006 ASPCA® Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award
New York Public Library Books for Teen Age Readers List
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award (Vermont)
If you liked Listen!, I’d recommend:
A Dog’s Life by Ann M. Martin
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan
A Dog Called Kitty by Bill Wallace
Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan
ISBN-13:978-0060579357
