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    Secrets at Sea
    Unavailable
    Secrets at Sea
    Unavailable
    Secrets at Sea
    Audiobook3 hours

    Secrets at Sea

    Written by Richard Peck

    Narrated by Jayne Entwistle

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Helena is big-sister mouse to three younger siblings, living a snug and well-fed life within the ancient walls of the Cranston family home. When the Cranston humans decide to sail away to England to find a husband for one of their daughters, the Cranston mice stow away in the name of family solidarity.

    And so begins the scamper of their lives as Helena, her siblings, and their humans set sail on a life-changing voyage into the great world of titled humans . . . and titled mice, with surprise endings for all. The masterful Richard Peck brings all of his talents to this tale of two branches of an American family, set on the eve of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. There are plenty of laughs and thrills, and of course there's a ship's cat, too. Will our Cranston heroes squeak by, or will they go entirely overboard?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 10, 2012
    ISBN9780307968272
    Unavailable
    Secrets at Sea
    Author

    Richard Peck

    "I spent the first eighteen years of my life in Decatur, Illinois, a middle-American town in a time when teenagers were considered guilty until proven innocent, which is fair enough. My mother read to me before I could read to myself, and so I dreamed from the start of being a writer in New York. But Decatur returned to haunt me, becoming the "Bluff City" of my four novels starring Alexander Armsworth and Blossom Culp. When I was young, we were never more than five minutes from the nearest adult, and that solved most of the problems I write about for a later generation living nearer the edge. The freedoms and choices prematurely imposed upon young people today have created an entire literature for them. But then novels are never about people living easy lives through tranquil times; novels are the biographies of survivors. "I went to college in Indiana and then England, and I was a soldier in Germany -- a chaplain's assistant in Stuttgart -- ghost-writing sermons and hearing more confessions than the clergy. In Decatur we'd been brought up to make a living and not to take chances, and so I became an English teacher, thinking this was as close to the written word as I'd be allowed to come. And it was teaching that made a writer out of me. I found my future readers right there in the roll book. After all, a novel is about the individual within the group, and that's how I saw young people every day, as their parents never do. In all my novels, you have to declare your independence from your peers before you can take that first real step toward yourself. As a teacher, I'd noticed that nobody ever grows up in a group. "I wrote my first line of fiction on May 24th, 1971 -- after seventh period. I'd quit my teaching job that day, liberated at last from my tenure and hospitalization. At first, I wrote with my own students in mind. Shortly, I noticed that while I was growing older every minute at the typewriter, my readers remained mysteriously the same age. For inspiration, I now travel about sixty thousand miles a year, on the trail of the young. Now, I never start a novel until some young reader, somewhere, gives me the necessary nudge.. "In an age when hardly more than half my readers live in the same homes as their fathers, I was moved to write Father Figure. In it a teenaged boy who has played the father-figure role to his little brother is threatened when they are both reunited with the father they hardly know. It's a novel like so many of our novels that moves from anger to hope in situations to convince young readers that novels can be about them... "I wrote Are You in the House Alone? when I learned that the typical victim of our fastest growing, least-reported crime, rape, is a teenager -- one of my own readers, perhaps. It's not a novel to tell young readers what rape is. They already know that. It's meant to portray a character who must become something more than a victim in our judicial system that defers to the criminal... "Two of my latest attempts to keep pace with the young are a comedy called Lost in Cyberspace and its sequel, The Great Interactive Dream Machine. Like a lot of adults, I noticed that twelve year olds are already far more computer-literate than I will ever be. As a writer, I could create a funny story on the subject, but I expect young readers will be more attracted to it because it is also a story about two friends having adventures together. There's a touch of time travel in it, too, cybernetically speaking, for those readers who liked sharing Blossom Culp's exploits. And the setting is New York, that magic place I dreamed of when I was young in Decatur, Illinois..." More About Richard Peck Richard Peck has written over twenty novels, and in the process has become one of America's most highly respected writers for young adults. A versatile writer, he is beloved by middle graders as well as young adults for his mysteries and coming-of-age novels. He now lives in New York City. In addition to writing, he spends a great deal of time traveling around the country attending speaking engagements at conferences, schools and libraries... Mr. Peck has won a number of major awards for the body of his work, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award from School Library Journal, the National Council of Teachers of English/ALAN Award, and the 1991 Medallion from the University of Southern Mississippi. Virtually every publication and association in the field of children s literature has recommended his books, including Mystery Writers of America which twice gave him their Edgar Allan Poe Award. Dial Books for Young Readers is honored to welcome Richard Peck to its list with Lost in Cyberspace and its sequel The Great Interactive Dream Machine... Twenty Minutes a Day by Richard Peck Read to your children Twenty minutes a day; You have the time, And so do they. Read while the laundry is in the machine; Read while the dinner cooks; Tuck a child in the crook of your arm And reach for the library books. Hide the remote, Let the computer games cool, For one day your children will be off to school; Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice; Let them hear their first tales In the sound of your voice. Read in the morning; Read over noon; Read by the light of Goodnight Moon. Turn the pages together, Sitting close as you'll fit, Till a small voice beside you says, "Hey, don't quit." copyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.

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    Reviews for Secrets at Sea

    3.5/5

    72 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the audio CD, Secrets at Sea, written by Richard Peck and narrated by Jayne Entwistle. Entwistle did a fabulous job of bringing both the mice and their human counterpoints to life. Secrets at Sea tells the story of a family of mice that set sail to England with their human family the Cranstons. The voyage is a life changing journey for everyone. This was a fun read with humor, drama and a dash of romance.
    • 4/5
      I found this highly amusing and entertaining, but I'm not convinced of its kid appeal. I felt like a lot of my enjoyment came from the way it was riffing on human historical fiction and comedies of manners. Probably works well for the right kid reader, but the number of right readers is likely to be small.Narrated by Jayne Entwistle. The narration was lovely - Entwistle captured the rhythms of Peck's language nicely and managed to differentiate among the voices of the three mice sisters.
    • 4/5
      Richard Peck is a master, whether he is writing about a human family in the Midwest during the Depression or a mouse family journeying on an ocean liner in the Victorian era. He adds plenty of detail to help the reader enter that world, but not so much that the story suffers. His characters befriend the reader. You're pulled in for a period of time, but you enjoy every bit of it.
    • 3/5
      Not my favourite Richard Peck novel, but a cute story for younger readers.
    • 5/5
      A significant departure from Richard Peck's other stories and a wonderfully witty, whimsical delight.
    • 5/5
      This book was really good I loved all the accents. The only thing I would dislike about it is she read it a little slow but besides that I loved it and I. Kind of sad I finished it
    • 3/5
      I like a mouse adventure, and a mouse adventure with Victorian hijinks just adds to the fun.
    • 4/5
      The ending's maybe a bit too saccharine and the illustrations could be a bit better — a bit more, fantasy perhaps? not quite so much the rather plain B&W drawings? — but still, a charming read in which the mice are anthropomorphized but without any hokiness. If you like rodents, a 4**** read that adults will enjoy as well as the middle-reader children.
    • 4/5
      A delightful and old-fashioned (in the best possible sense) story that begs to be read aloud. Told through the eyes of Helena, the oldest mouse in the family since the tragic demise of their parents, it is the tale of four mouse siblings who share the house with the Cranstons, a bumbling and socially graceless family who have decided that a trip to Europe is just the thing to marry the older daughter off. When the mice hear of the planned ocean voyage, they realize that they must accompany their humans in spite of their deep fear of water. A comedy of errors ensues, involving both humans and mice. Peck provides subtle humor, non-stop adventure, and a dash of romance, and middle-grade students will wish they had a family of mice so devoted.
    • 4/5
      The Cranstons, a boorish nouveau riche family from New York, set out on a journey to London to find a husband for their oldest daughter who has exhausted all possible suitors locally. Of course their mouse family, the narrators of this story, must accompany them. It turns out to be a grand adventure for all with a few historical tidbits thrown in. Not a Desperaux, but still an endearing mouse tale.
    • 4/5
      Helena Mouse, her 2 sisters, and her brother set sail on an ocean adventure to find husbands for her human friends. Enter a fierce cat and a mischievous child, and you have a fun ocean adventure just in time for Queen Victoria's Jubilee.
    • 4/5
      A pleasant book about four sibling mice who decide to cross the Atlantic when the people who live in the same house they do sail to England to try to find a husband for the eldest daughter. They discover an amazing underworld of mice accompanying their humans, and they learn how to help their humans achieve their goals.
    • 4/5
      I wish I could recreate for you Richard Peck's autograph on my copy of A Long Way From Chicago. The flourishes, the curlicues, the expansiveness of it are indications of how he talks and how he writes. There's an imagination, an imagery, a use of words that few authors achieve in a lifetime and he does it time and again. Maybe his mantra of "If you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader" really holds true. Whatever it is, he certainly has the talent. And Secrets at Sea will enchant you.The 'upstairs Cranstons' need to find a husband for older daughter, Olive. They've exhausted all the possibilities in the New York vicinity and have decided to try their luck abroad. They are off on a trans-Atlantic voyage to see what England has to offer.The 'downstairs Cranstons', the mice residing in the lower levels are frantic. What is to become of them if the Upstairs Cranstons desert them for foreign lands? Helena, the older sister to Louise, Beatrice and Lamont, decides to seek counsel from old, wise Aunt Fannie Fenimore, who lives in the mansion next door. Aunt Fannie looks into her crystal ball and describes Helena's two futures: the one that chooses her and the one that she chooses. The one that chooses Helena does not look promising, but the one that she can choose is even more frightening because in that crystal ball is the image of a huge ocean liner...and you should know that mice and water are not friends.And this is how Helena finds herself on an ocean liner bound for England and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee - 60 years upon the greatest throne in human history. You will meet a marvelous cast of characters, both human and mouse. And, most importantly, you will learn why, without the aid of our mice, we humans would be in one great big mess.Secrets at Sea is a wonderful voyage for your imagination.