The Tale of Peter Rabbit is one of those classic books that probably every kid has read at some point. It is also a story that has been told and retold in children’s stories, probably since there were stories. It’s the classic tale of the mischievous child—Peter—who, when given clear instruction and a compelling reason to not do something, proceeds to do exactly what he was warned against. As if that weren’t enough, Peter’s total lack of self-control extends to his eating habits, such that, when presented with an abundance of food and no supervision, he eats himself sick. As could be expected, his situation goes from bad to worse, and he ends up naked, wet, cold, and alone, with the hidden enemy lurking somewhere between him and the freedom he seeks, which lies in some unknown direction. Upon finally arriving home, Peter’s only punishment is his own self-inflicted illness, despite his having lost yet another set of clothing, and having obviously been up to no good. As near as I can tell, the moral of this story is that you can be as disobedient and mischievous as you like, as long as you’re smart about it.

This and the final track on the 2004 CD were a bit of a concession, in that this isn’t necessarily one of my favorite stories. I think I felt that three stories wasn’t quite enough, so I picked the last two to fill out the list a bit. I do like this story, however, and there is just something fun about saying “Flopsy, Mopsy.”

Enjoy the reading.

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The third book from the 2004 Christmas CD is the ever popular Green Eggs and Ham—a presumed favorite of the mothers of picky children.

The story involves a gruff, grumpy presumably older person. Set in his ways, and flush with life experience, he knows what he likes, and—more importantly for this story—what he doesn’t like. This gentleman, from the outset of the story is beset by a pestering, annoying interloper who insists on shoving the same plateful of foul looking food in his face for the next several hours (or perhaps days). Despite our protagonist’s gruff—but polite—rebuffs of the pushy peddler, he is continuously harrassed with ham.

In the end, after being stalked, run over by a car, kidnapped against his will onto the roof of a speeding train, and finally crash landed onto a boat which is utterly destroyed, our protagonist gives into the classic “how do you know you don’t like them if you won’t try them” ploy. When he does try them, and realizes that they haven’t gone rancid yet and are actually palatable, he quickly scarfs down the entire plate so that that annoying and mentally unstable Sam character can’t even have a bite. Revenge is a dish best borrowed full and returned empty.

The fun aspect of this recording, which I barely remembered but was pleasantly surprised to rediscover, is that my wife pitched in as the voice of Sam-I-am. Of course, we recorded it together, sharing the same cheap’o microphone, so there are a few instances where you can just about catch us cracking each other up. As with most of this stuff, I cleaned up as much as I could, as I didn’t want extra noises to distract from and possibly muddy the voices. This was a fun read, and I’d love to have done more with Sara, but her schedule, and the fact that I always seem to be recording these at the last possible moments, has since precluded her involvement. More’s the pity.

We hope you enjoy this entertaining and spirited reading of an entertaining and spirited book.

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The second reading from my 2004 Christmas present to my niece, is another childhood favorite—Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham. This great little story features an intelligent and adventurous dog—a combination that appeals to just about any young boy. The story skillfully and entertainingly illustrates a common aspect of human psychology, and ends with a positive resolution that still manages to maintain an air of mischief. As a kid, the two greatest aspects of the book were Harry’s joy at romping around the city, and his elation when his family finally recognized him. The latter always seemed very heartfelt and touching.

In this reading, you get a bit of my somewhat cursory attempts at different character voices, while the quality reflects the low fidelity of the equipment used. All-in-all, it’s a fun read, and, I hope, a fun listen.

My audio items should appear as a podcast within the regular subscription feed, but you may subscribe to the “Podcast Only” feed if you prefer.

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In 2004, I started a fun project as a way of making a very personal Christmas gift for my niece. At the time, my sister and her fledgling family lived in Paris, so we didn’t even have the opportunity to meet our niece until she was several months old. Because of this, I knew that I would miss getting to sit and read her her favorite books—something I was thoroughly enjoying with Sara’s (now also my) nieces—so I decided I would record myself reading some of my favorite stories, and give her the books and a nicely packaged CD for Christmas. With plenty of pictures of me to look at, and the soothing sounds of my voice reading great stories, I hoped my niece would think of me often, and fondly.

The first CD really was mostly a bunch of my favorite stories, plus Mr. Brown Can Moo and The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was also my first attempt at doing any kind of serious audio production on the computer. I was using a cheap headset mic, and I had to do quite a bit of noise removal, and actually ended up removing all of my really obvious breath noises by hand. Add in some chimes to indicate a page turn, and that was pretty much it.

When I gave it to her at Christmas she loved the pictures of me, and loved the books, but didn’t really know what to think of the CD. She figured it out soon enough, and ended up really loving it. In fact, this CD and the subsequent ones have been so successful, that apparently now Emma and her brothers will give my sis a very hard way to go if they forget to bring “Uncle Matthew” along on long car rides. Success!

I’ve had a few people suggesting and requesting that I put these recordings online, so that’s just what I’m going to do. Here is my favorite reading from that very first CD.

Where the Wild Things Are was always one of my absolute favorites as a kid. It was stylistically distinctive, and the story was engaging and personal. What kid can’t identify with Max, who found a world of wonder that he could control, but finally realized that it’s no fun being somewhere without people who love you. I’m not sure how much subtext my young mind gleaned from this book, but I was always touched by the warm dinner that was waiting for him at home–it said to me that, even when you’re bad, even when you’re being punished, your mother still loves you, and I think that’s a very important thing for a kid to understand.

This was my first reading, and my niece was just over a year old, so I was reading very slowly and deliberately, trying hard to enunciate clearly. Listening to it again, I think perhaps the page-turn chimes were a bit hurried, but it seems to have all worked out ok. You can let me know what you think in the comments.

P.S. My audio items will be also be published as a podcast, and should appear as such within the regular subscription feed, but you may subscribe to the “Podcast Only” feed if you prefer.

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