Break the Fossil Record

Best friends Ivy and Bean are different. Ivy loves "drop everything and read" time at school, but Bean finds it torturous--until her teacher shows her THE AMAZING BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS. Soon Bean is intent on setting her own world record. After first trying to be the fastest dishwasher and then to shatter glass with her screams, she and Ivy eventually settle on being the youngest paleontologists in history. Cassandra Morris is an animated, engaged presenter. The voice she creates for Bean's older sister, Nancy, is priceless--alternating between loftiness and peevish needling, Morris beautifully captures the edgy relationship of the siblings. Best of all is Morris's genuinely childlike sound and her child-friendly depiction of the two friends and their mixed-up adventures. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine