Curse of the Blue Tattoo (Audiobook)

Meyer, L.A. (2004) Curse of the Blue Tattoo.  San Diego, CA: Harcourt Publishing

     Audiobook Narrated by Katherine Kellgren--Released 2008  Audio Length: Unabridged-14 hours 13 Minutes.

 Curse of the Blue Tattoo is the second novel in the Bloody Jack series that follows the adventures of Jacky Farber, an orphan in 18th Century London.  The audiobook is a great listen for any kid in the car on a long trip and captures the tale as Meyer wrote it.

The audiobook is in unabridged format and the book is easy to listen and fall into.  Katherine Kellgren is an excellent reader for this particular book.  Curse of the Blue Tattoo is written in first person and Kellgren adopts a cockney accent to essentially become Jacky for the reader.  As speakers change in the text, Kellgren changes her accent and pitch to bring life to the new character and it is not the same tone the whole way through the novel.  The narration fits this book because it captures how the characters may have sounded during 18th Century London.  Kellgren uses her shifting voices and tones to narrate how the different characters speak and shows the differences between them using her voice.

The story is also such a great adventure that it makes the reader(listener) want to stay tuned for the full fourteen hours.  Kellgren continues to make the action come to life as the pirates discover exactly who Bloody Jack is and Jacky's new struggle conquering a girl's school and many other challenges.

For this particular audiobook, sound effects were not used.  The whole narration is only Kellgren reading the text.  However, as she is presenting a book in audio format, this simplistic style works because she can then use her words to illustrate the action and tone of voice is used to guide readers into what is happening and how it should feel.  There is no feedback on the audio version and makes this book a very good listen.

This audiobook is an Odyssey Award Honor recipient for 2009 which is given by the ALA for the best audiobook for adults and young adults.  This is not Kellgren's first honor as her reading of Bloody Jack-the first book in this series received the Odyssey Award Honor in 2008.

This audiobook would be a great tool for educators to allow students to see books in different formats and allow them to almost imagine the words off the page as they listen to Kellgren.  It is a great tool for struggling readers to be able to keep up with class readings while also promoting many different book titles. Having a book read instead of doing the reading has the ability to also teach students how to pronounce different words or notice the cultural differences in how words are said. With this book's setting in London, there are words that may be pronounced differently than usual and educators can use this tool to help readers recognize those words and learn them the right way, the first time.

For readers, this book is aimed at 8-12 years old.  It encompasses adventure that many will enjoy as well as the unique twist with the young orphan being a girl trying to survive on pirate ships and 18th century London.  Many will enjoy Kellgren's style of reading the book and bringing Meyer's characters to life.