Review: Echo

Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'll probably catch some heat for that rating, but I have to be honest about my reaction. Maybe the low rating is because I like YA books better than children's books? But I know I've given high ratings to acclaimed books for that age group before.

I listened to the audiobook because it won an Odyssey Honor this year. I understand that the harmonica performance and singing is unique in audiobooks, but there were times when I cringed. Some of the singing isn't that great--the singers were trying to reach notes that were too high for them. There were times when the volume of the music playing was too low--I couldn't hear it in my car and had to turn the volume up. To me, if I have to vary the volume of an audiobook, then that isn't a good thing for the production. I swear I heard a mispronounced word on Disk 8.

Now, the story. This just wrapped up too nicely for me. I'm not a fan of the structure. By the time I finally got back to Otto, I had forgotten who he even was, and I listened to 90 minutes of the audiobook per day. I would have preferred an entire novel about Ivy Maria Lopez--she was the only character I really connected with.

So, not the book for me, but I know it's the book for many of you.

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