Audible: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren

I did a ridiculous amount of driving this week and so I popped in an audiobook to make my travels less arduous. I had read The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood several years ago but I could not remember how it ended. Typically, even a bad audiobook is made easier for me to enjoy when I have already read the book. However, I was surprised to find how delightful this book was as an audiobook! Katherine Kellgren narrates the story in a clipped British accent and gives all of the characters their own voice.

If you are familiar with the story of The Incorrigibles then you know that giving a voice to the children is no easy feat. “The Incorrigibles,” as they are dubbed in this first book, are three children found in the woods of Ashton Place that have been raised by wolves. They are brought into the home of newlyweds, Lord Frederick and Lady Cornelia Ashton, neither of which want anything to do with the raising of the children. So, they hire Miss Penelope Lumley.

This is Miss Lumley’s first position as a professional governess having recently graduated from the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. Thankfully, she is no ordinary governess and seems to be uniquely suited for turning the children from wolves into proper people.

I remember the story as being cute. A large cast of characters is introduced in this first book in order to be used in later stories but there is still an active plot with action and great character development. Also, just as Lemony Snicket does in A Series of Unfortunate Events this this book utilizes functional defining. I could see where parents enjoying this story with children would appreciate this device but it always seemed to interrupt the story for me when employed by Snicket. However, in this book, the author seamlessly uses larger words in sentences and almost in a *wink wink* manner defines them for the audience without loosing the story’s momentum.

But, narrated, the story really comes alive. Especially since the narrator has to howl so much! When she does the voices of the children, softly talking to the governess with their odd and adorable little speech mannerisms I just fell in love with this story.

I was also happy to discover that you can search by narrator on audiophilemagazine.com and now I have over 100 books narrated by Katherine Kellgren to look forward to, including the rest of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series!

Have you ever experienced this, an audiobook that really brought a book to life?