Cool Zone With The Pain and the Great One

Blume, Judy. (2008). Cool Zone With the Pain and the Great One. audiobook. New York, New York: Listening Library.

Brief Annotation: First grader Jake ("The Pain"), and his third-grade sister, Abigail ("The Great One") take turns narrating short stories about their lives in this audiobook. Kathleen McInerney does both children's voices in a very natural way. The stories are about common childhood problems. In one, Jake loses a lost tooth on the schoolbus. In another, a bully steals Jake's magnifying glass, and the brother and sister band together to get it back and stand up to the bully. In a third, Abigail decides that she doesn't like her name anymore, and attempts to get everyone to start calling her Violet Rose. Through all of the stories, the siblings tease each other, but at the same time understand and stand up for each other. The final chapter is narrated by Judy Blume herself as Fluzzy, the cat, who also wants a name change.
Genre: realistic contemporary fiction audiobook
Grade Level: 2-5
Readers who will like this: Readers who like funny stories, readers who like reading about siblings, readers who have dealt with bullies
Response/Rating (1-4): 4. The audiobook was fun to listen to, and could be broken up into different chapters easily if you want to listen to it over a series of days.
One question you would ask before a read aloud: Have you ever wanted to change your name?