GRANNY TORRELLI MAKES SOUP

Via Murphy's colorful, warm reading of Creech's (Walk Two Moons) brief novel, listeners soon discover that soup, pasta and good old-fashioned conversation prove great elixirs. Drama bubbles up when 12-year-old Rosie has a spat with her best friend and neighbor, Bailey. Through a series of flashbacks and real-time kitchen talks with her Granny Torrelli while they cook, Rosie begins to unravel her emotions and perhaps better understand her intensely protective (and proprietary) feelings for Bailey, who has recently gone blind. In the passages of text that jump back in Rosie's childhood, Murphy follows, sounding younger. Granny Torrelli has a somewhat generic "foreign grandmother" accent that sometimes sounds Russian or Eastern European as much as Italian, but listeners will easily forgive this quibble in light of the entertaining, full-bodied characters here. Ages 8-up. (Aug.)