Wonderful CDs, cassettes and books by Jay O'Callahan and Susan Cooper that will entertain kids and adults during summer vacations
"A theater troupe in one body," is how the Associated Press describes award-winning actor/storyteller Jay O’Callahan. O'Callahan is a writer, performance artist and storyteller of international renown. Whether he is recalling stories from his childhood in Brookline, Massachusetts, or relaying a riveting drama of WW II, or the rise and fall of a US mill town, or the extinction of the great auk, listeners are spellbound from beginning to end.
Acclaimed children's author Susan Cooper is best known to the general public for her fantasy series "The Dark Is Rising." Psychology Today says, "Susan Cooper is one of the few contemporary writers who has the vivid imagination, the narrative powers, and the moral vision that permit her to create the kind of sweeping conflict between good and evil that lies at the heart of all great fantasy. Tolkien had it. So did C.S. Lewis. And Cooper writes in the same tradition."
Cooper is known to Revels' fans as the author of the powerful and moving poem "The Shortest Day," heard at each Christmas Revels performance.
Pill Hill Quartet
4 Stories by Jay O'Callahan
"No other storytellers alive today rival O'Callahan1s ability to write and produce original tales" - School Library Journal
"I can't think of a better way to gather a family together than around the sweet genius of this man" - John Koch, Boston Globe
Jay O'Callahan grew up in a neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts called Pill Hill because so many doctors lived there. The magical house and grounds and the drama of his lively neighbors inspired these colorful stories about
Norwegians in the attic, a sausage dog who spoke only Portuguese, salmon in the bathtub, and the delicious mystery of x. Recorded live at the studios of WGBH-FM, Boston.
CD-1300 (CD) $14.95 [add to order]
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Dark Is Rising, The
Book on tape
"Susan Cooper is one of the few contemporary writers who has the vivid imagination, the narrative powers, and the moral vision that permit her to create the kind of sweeping conflict between good and evil that lies at the heart of all great fantasy. Tolkien had it. So did C. S. Lewis. And Cooper writes in the same tradition." Psychology Today
On the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton Discovers a special gift - that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to keeping the world from domination by the forces of evil, the Dark. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid the Old Ones in the final battle between the Dark and the Light. And for the twelve days of Christmas, while the Dark is rising, life for Will is full of wonder, teror and delight.
6 cassettes; 8 hours, 40 minutes.
Performed by Alex Jennings
"So perfect is the match between Alex Jennings' voice and this mysterious magical tale...that it is difficult to imagine any other voice reading these words." The Horn Book Magazine
CT-2505 (six cassette set) $29.95 [add to order]
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Boggart and the Monster, The - book on tape
It has been two years since Emily and Jessup Volnik visited ancient Castle Keep in Scotland and made the acquaintace of the Boggart, a mischievous shape-shifting spirit who has lived in the castle for centuries. Now they've returned for another Scottish adventure, joining their old friend Tommy and Mr. Maconochie, the new owner of Castle Keep, on a trip to Loch Ness, where a new expedition is determined to find the fabled monster. Of course, the fun-loving Boggart comes along for the ride, and wherever the Boggart goes, things are bound to get lively. But this time, the Boggart has a serious mission. His cousin Nessie is trapped in the monster shape he assumed long ago, and it's up to the Boggart to keep Nessie from being discovered by the expeditons's high-tech equipment. Is modern science any match for the Boggart's ancient magic?
Set of 3 cassettes; 4 hours, 43 minutes
Performed by David Rintoul
CT-2507 (cassette) $29.95 [add to order]
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Stories and Sea Songs
Jay O'Callahan and John Langstaff
Two exceptional performers and old friends come together to tell stories and sing in this live concert recording by Jay O'Callahan and John Langstaff. Collaborating on the theme of the sea, O'Callahan tells two of his best stories--The Cliffs of Culdurragh and The Herring Shed--and Langstaff sings sea songs such as "I'se the B'y That Builds the Boat" and "Coast of High Barbary." The recording captures the spontaneity and joy of the evening, including the audience who couldn't resist joining in on the last song, "Wild Mountain Thyme."
CD-3325 $14.95 [add to order]
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Spirit of the Great Auk, The (CD)
This story written by Jay O'Callahan lets you experience the plight of the ocean. In "The Spirit of the Great Auk", he recreates Dick Wheeler's 1500 mile kayak voyage from Newfoundland to Buzzards Bay. In a blend of straightforward narrative and classic O'Callahan embroidery, we hear the story of Dick Wheeler, the "great auk man," who traveled the migratory route of that seabird, hunted to extinction by 1844, in a 17-foot kayak. O'Callahan recounts a story of the incredible daring of one man and the unthinkable loss to us all as our wildlife disappears from the earth. With classic fervor and enthusiasm, O'Callahan makes us care immensely about Dick Wheeler, the outcome of his journey and the bird that is gone forever. Story on CD.
CD 8004 $14.95 [add to order]
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Raspberries (CD)
Once upon a time there was a sad farmer. Everything went wrong in his life. Until one day..." Storyteller Jay O'Callahan made up the story "Raspberries" when his 4-year-old son, Teddy, was desperately in need of a funny distraction. Though the original story was short, Jay says, it grew in the telling until it became one of his favorite springtime stories. Story on CD.
CD 0002 $14.95 [add to order]
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King of Shadows, The (cassette)
When Nat Field, an orphan living with his aunt, is chosen for an all-boy acting troupe traveling to London to perform Shakespeare in the reconstructed Globe Theatre, he hopes it will help him escape from his family's tragedy. Instead he finds himself switched in time with another Nat Field, who carries the Plague. In the past he performs with the Bard himself, who becomes a surrogate father and helps him deal with his sorrow, while preparing to play Oberon to Nat's Puck in a performance before the Queen. Cooper is in top form here; her confident prose, at once muscular and lyrical, vividly conveys the sights, sounds, and smells of Elizabethan London. Most powerful are her descriptions of the story and imaginative staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which should have readers scurrying for the original. Her poignant characterization of Nat, whose grief is released by Shakespeare and healed by his words, captures perfectly an adolescent in thrall of the theater, in all its grittiness and grandeur. A dramatic and sensory feast. Jim Dale, himself a Shakespearean actor, and now familiar to many as the versatile reader of the Harry Potter titles, reads King of Shadows forcefully, with the intensity demanded by a story that employs bubonic plague as a time-travel device to transport a contemporary boy to 1599. (Story on Cassette)
CT 2506 $22.00 [add to order]
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