Listen

by Nancy Coffelt

Three lives intersect unexpectedly in this unique, compelling story. First there's Will, an eighteen-year-old living alone since his mother died and his drug- and alcohol-addled brother went to jail. Then there's Kurt, a troubled fourteen-year-old loner still reeling after the death of his mother's abusive boyfriend and from his part in it. And finally there's Carrie, a middle-aged schizophrenic who "hears" the thoughts of the abused and neglected neighborhood animals she rescues. When Carrie and Kurt meet, she offers to pay him for each "stray" cat or dog he delivers. But when Carrie's "rescuing" goes too far, events spiral dangerously out of control. Told from alternating viewpoints, Listen is the haunting story of people thrown together by fate, each struggling to come to terms with their harrowing past.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult

214 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Nancy Coffelt is an author and artist from Portland, Oregon - best known for her work on childrens' and young adult books, including Fred Stays With Me and Listen.
She often features dogs in her work, and a lot of her stories revolve around dogs. Her art has been featured in galleries, and she illustrates several of her own books.

Reviews

[Klo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sitll do not get who gave me this book but whatever.
well this book as you can see in the back is a darek-realistic story.
the part of carrie talking to cats and dog is confusing (but she is sick).
so this story is base on a guy name will then kurt then carrie.
kurt is has a dark history as well as the other characters Three lives intersect unexpectedly in this unique, compelling story. First there's Will, an eighteen-year-old living alone since his mother died and his drug- and alcohol-addled brother went to jail. Then there's Kurt, a troubled fourteen-year-old loner still reeling after the death of his mother's abusive boyfriend and from his part in it. And finally there's Carrie, a middle-aged schizophrenic who "hears" the thoughts of the abused and neglected neighborhood animals she rescues. When Carrie and Kurt meet, she offers to pay him for each "stray" cat or dog he delivers. But when Carrie's "rescuing" goes too far, events spiral dangerously out of control. Told from alternating viewpoints, Listen is the haunting story of people thrown together by fate, each struggling to come to terms with their harrowing past

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Coffelt is known as a picture book author and illustrator, and an esteemed artist. However, LISTEN shows her as a capable novelist, too. It's a shame this publisher closed its YA imprint.

[andie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really good for understanding the effects of abuse and mental illness. Carrie's character is brilliantly executed. A must-read.

SPOILER

I'm so sad Mavis died!!!!! I can't even!!!! :(

[Zhao Yong Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the book Listen, there is a series of three characters that somehow connect with each other. Kurt is a 14 year old teenager that is trying to try and live off his haunting past that consists of killing his mother's abusive boyfriend and a mother that is going to rehab in order to forget the haunting past she lived. Kurt is similar to another character called Will in the book, because they both had a death of a "family" member. Will's brother kiledl his mother, because he wanted money for his drugs, and Kurt killed his mother's boyfriend because of his abusiveness. On page 193, it states "I wanted him to stop. I wasn't thinking about anything but making him stop hurting my mom." This shows that people do care for their family, even if it doesn't show anything.

In this book, Kurt helps a crazy lady rescue abandoned animals, and gives it to her. However, he soon saved a baby and gave it to the lady. Soon enough the lady became obssessed with the baby and protected the child as if it were her life. She soon became physio about the baby, and Kurt needed to stop it. Kurt finally stepped out and worked with will to save the child.

From this book, I learned that many people has a side of them that not many people might see. For example, Kurt might seem like a teenager who is throwing his life away, but all he wants is to try and survive without his family.

[Bethzayra Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives an interesting view on how people all have an impact on someone's life even when they don't know that they do. It gives a perspective on how someone begins to make an opinion on the life of someone they barely know by observing their actions and the people around them. Kurt is a young boy who lives with his grandmother and doesn't have any friends. He also wants to live with his dad but he has no information on where he is or a form of communication to reach him. Will has the ability to taste his words. Some words have a certain taste to will because they're connected to a certain memory. Lastly, Carrie talks with her animals and "rescues" animals that are being neglected by their owners. In the book Will thinks of kurt as a lazy kid who doesn't care about his education or anyone else around him, but as the story moves along he discovers Kurt cares about his grandmother and getting to see his father one day. He proves that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover shouldn't. I enjoyed reading this book because it was a nice combination of more then one persons life being talked about all at once.

[McKinzey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is definitely one of the more depressing books I've ever read. It was good while I was reading it, but once it was over, I felt relieved. The author did do a great job of speaking from different character's voices. I really felt like I was reading about three different people with three different personalities. However, the amount of abuse in the book was shocking and, as I said before, depressing. I would only read this book if you had another very lighthearted book set in line to read after it.

[Cheryl Shults · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure of this book--the author is doing a great job of pulling me in, but I am so ready to know more about each of the three main characters. Obviously, this is one you have to read until the very end to learn what is going on.

[Melanie Demyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy is my instructor at the Children's Institute of Literature. I read this to check her style. It's a little "dark", but I really admired how she developed the characters and brought them all together, in the end. Kudos to you, Nancy!

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way the book was spaced out made it a little confusing, sometimes I lost track of who's story I was on, but overall it was a good read.

[Naberius]

ARC