Replay

by Sharon Creech Narrated by Christopher Burns

Overview

Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech's inspired novel tells the story of a boy who fantasizes about who he is in order to discover who he will become. Now with fresh and gorgeous new cover art, this touching tale has received many starred reviews, and was called a ""warm, funny, philosophical novel"" by Kirkus Reviews.

With the backdrop of a large family and a theater as its frame, this is a story about twelve-year-old Leo, who has a talent for transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. That's why he's called ""fog boy."" He's always dreaming, always replaying things in his brain. As an actor in the school play, he is poised and ready for the curtain to open. But in the play that is his life, he is eager to discover what part will be his.

With the universal theme of finding one's true identity, and set amid a loud, noisy, memorable family, Leo's story is one that all kids will relate to. And there's a full play at the end of the book that kids and teachers can perform!

This heartwarming novel about a boy discovering his true identity through his love for performing arts would make a perfect gift for grandparents looking for a self-help book to share with their grandkids.

HarperCollins 2024

Editorial Reviews

Twelve-year-old Leo carries an indelible, slightly odious nickname: Sardine. In his day-to-day life, he often feels squished within a tin. In his fantasies, though, Leo is no sardine. He soars with dreams, replays memories, and speculates about who he could become. Rehearsing for the school play serves as both catharsis and meditation for this shy, introspective boy. This charming, ultimately cheering book by the author of Walk Two Moons and The Wanderer is a good pick for reflective, slightly timid young readers.

Elizabeth Ward

Creech, a multiple Newbery honoree, sometimes dips into sentimentality…In this perfectly constructed novel for middle readers, some schmaltz-alert elements are present—huge Italian-American family, wise grownup, sweet, precocious kid—but Creech keeps her balance.
—The Washington Post

Kirkus Reviews

One of four children in a large, chaotic Italian-American family, 12-year-old Leo is nicknamed "sardine" because he once said he felt squished like one, and occasionally "fog boy" because he slips into thoughtful trances where he "replays" life's disappointing scenarios. Papa says Leo can make "gold from pebbles," and indeed, in Leo's amusingly grandiose imaginings, readers will behold the often-stumbling, invisible-feeling boy emerge as the Nobel Prize winner or famous actor he was (possibly) born to be. When Leo gets the part of "old crone" in the school play, he analyzes that character, but more important, he examines his own life's role, and that of his once-vivacious, now distant father. In this warm, funny, philosophical novel, Creech cleverly juxtaposes life and stage life, complete with a cast of characters, short chapters listed as scenes and pieces of dialogue recorded as script. By the end, Leo knows life can't be scripted, that he wouldn't want it to be, that "dorky, little nobody kids" (not that he is one) can become "amazing grown-ups" and that improvisation is key. (complete script of the school play) (Fiction. 8-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170066742
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/27/2005
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Replay

Chapter One

Boy Wonder

From his perch in the maple tree, Leo hears a cry of distress, a high-pitched yelping. He scans the neighborhood, and there, midway down the block, he sees the old woman lying on the sidewalk. Leo leaps from the tree and races down the street.

"Call the rescue squad!" he orders a neighbor peering from her window.

Leo reaches the old woman, takes her pulse. It's weak, fading. "Stand back," he tells the gathering neighbors as he works at reviving the woman.

The woman's eyelids flutter. By the time the wail of the rescue squad car is heard, she is breathing normally, color returning to her cheeks.

"You saved her life," the rescue crew tells Leo. "You saved her life!"

"Hey, sardine! Fog boy! What the heck are you doing? Mom is looking all over for you."

Leo blinks and looks around.

"Did you hear me, sardine? You're going to be in big trouble—"

Leo turns. Trouble? Maybe someone needs him. He dashes for home. Maybe he will get there just in time.

Replay. Copyright © by Sharon Creech. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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