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Babcock

Gelesen von Joe Cottonwood

(4,721 Sterne; 34 Bewertungen)

A fat boy with the blues. A skinny girl who runs marathons. And a con man on the lam. If you liked Clear Heart, or if you liked Boone Barnaby, you’ll like this one, too. The themes are a bit more grown up than Boone Barnaby, but it’s still family-friendly for reading. For any age it’s my brand of writing: humane, down to earth, good-natured, sometimes funny and sometimes sad.

Babcock plays electric guitar. He’s writing songs - and trying to figure out the true meaning of rock and roll - but he keeps coming up with the blues. Babcock is trying to start a friendship with a girl, Kirsten, who is as different as can be: Kirsten is skinny; she hates insects. And she's white. Babcock is fat; he speaks to dragonflies. And he’s black.

In some ways Kirsten is like a dragonfly: quick and bright. She never walks; she runs everywhere. Her family has money. Her mother thinks Babcock is a little too "rough." Opposites attract. But can they make music?

Babcock's family is struggling for money. Then Babcock's Uncle Earl moves in - and he moves into Babcock's bedroom with Babcock's menagerie of animals (including Martin Luther Kingsnake.). Uncle Earl is a con man on the lam. Uncle Earl used to play drums for Chuck Berry. Babcock wants to be Chuck Berry. Uncle Earl wants to coach a Little League baseball team - as a “business venture.” Babcock hates baseball. Babcock wants to learn "charm" from Uncle Earl. Uncle Earl wants to learn how to live a normal life and marry a normal woman - who happens to be Babcock's schoolteacher. Maybe Babcock and Uncle Earl have something to teach each other.

Babcock's father runs a car repair shop. At night, in the kitchen, he draws cartoons. Some day he wants to quit repairing cars and sell his cartoons. But nobody's buying.

Kirsten is hotheaded. Sometimes she needs protection - from herself. Her mother tries to protect her - from Babcock. For help with his problems Babcock goes to an unlikely source: his Uncle Earl, the man with good charm and bad behavior. But the biggest lessons from Uncle Earl - and, perhaps, from rock and roll - are not what anyone expected.

In short, it’s about character. About making music. About family, hard work, about love and loss. Sometimes there’s laughter. Sometimes the lights are off in the kitchen; papa’s got blues. But always life is rich and deeply moving...

I call Babcock a post-Obama novel. It’s about the friendship of a black boy with a white girl, and it isn’t about racial issues - well, not much. Have we really reached that point? Is our cup half full? The odd thing is, I wrote this novel in 1992 when nobody, including me, had heard of Barack Obama and when book critics wanted bloody racial conflict whenever black and white characters mixed in the pages of a novel. Maybe I was 16 years ahead of the times.

Babcock is part of the San Puerco trilogy, which makes it a companion book to Boone Barnaby: same characters (plus a few new ones) and more adventures in the scrappy little town of San Puerco. The book won awards as a novel for children, but it has many adult fans, too. Most of the issues appeal to an adult perspective as well as a child’s, though with different understanding. Other issues, of course, only a young person can understand. That’s life. That’s rock and roll.


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License

Chapters

Babcock Episode 01

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 02

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 03

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 04

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 05

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 06

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 07

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 08

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 09

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 10

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 11

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 12

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Babcock Episode 13

Read by Joe Cottonwood

Bewertungen

very nice book and well read

(4,5 Sterne)

the story was good, I want to read more from this author! at first it was a bit confusing because the narrator was read by an adult man, but from the text it appeared to be a schoolboy or teenager, luckily at one point he said he was 13, so than it made more sense. And it appeared there was something wronge with the recordings, each episode was nearly 1,5 hours long, but after half an hour the episode was finished and when i scrolled forward earlier bits from the episode were there again, and when I scrolled back everything was a mess, this happened also when I stopped in the middle of an episode and closed the app.

(0 Sterne)

Joe you are an excellent writer and narrator. I love this story and the characters. Love the music and the other narrations as well. Did you have commercial success with this book? As I was listening I thought it would be a great book for middle school age kids. I ...

(0 Sterne)

Isis62, thank you. The book won several awards but was not a commercial success in its day. Many libraries carried, and perhaps still carry, the book. It's out of print. For a library to buy it today they would have to buy a used copy, which you can find (at ...

(0 Sterne)

Joe, another fun, guaranteed-to-make-you smile story. And wrapping in the music was a great treat! I hope you eventually record the final book in the trilogy, but if not I'll have to go seek it out. Your characters continue to charm and you're always at the top of my list ...

(0 Sterne)

Joe, this was a great story as well as the other books I listened to. I am not sure if I can still buy a copy but I do want to get a hold of the words that were said during the uncle's funeral on the boat. They are very ...

(0 Sterne)

I have just finished enjoying Babcock. Thank you Joe. What a wonderful story. great narration and wonderful music. A great experience. I had also loved Clear Heart and now look forward to Famous Potatoes. Thank again.

(0 Sterne)

Joe I just checked and indeed we do have it in our Middle School Library catalog. Whoo Hoo. I am glad that kids in our district have access to this sweet and lovely story.

(0 Sterne)

There are no words to describe how much I enjoyed the story and the wonderful narration. My only regret is that I could only give five stars in each category.