Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar (audio)
1 Playaway self-contained MP3 player (6.5 hours). Narrated by Ryan MacConnell and the Full Cast Family. Full Cast Audio, 2006.
Scott Hudson is looking forward to high school with equal parts eagerness and dread. He's a bright kid who has some good friends. His older brother did not distinguish himself, or rather he did, in a bad way. He wishes his brother would give him some advice about negotiating the treacherous waters.
After a rough first day, in which he falls in love with Julie, a classmate who got hot over the summer, gets lost a ton of times, has his lunch money taken and his head slapped too many times to count, Scott heads home to do a ton of homework. He also finds out that his mother is expecting a baby. What follows is Scott's hysterical account of his freshmen year and the advice that he writes for his unborn sibling.
I read this when it first came out and really enjoyed it. I recommend it often to students, especially eighth graders. It is the first book that the eighth grade book group that I run with the school counselor is reading. I figured that I would reread it by listening to the audio.
I still love the story, but was not a fan of the production. I am not a huge fan of full-cast audio books and am definitely not a fan of audiobooks that insert musical interludes. I guess I'm a single narrator kind of gal.
Still, I am very eager to hear what our eighth graders have to say about the book. The coincidence of our meeting being scheduled on the heels of their visit to our high school to hear about the available electives was not entirely accidental.