A story, whose aim isn’t high or out of reach, but right on the mark. It knows what wants to be and does it well. The plot of this tale is unusual and its form even stranger. It takes a stroll through the pre-WWII era all the way to the 80s via commercial radio ads. A fun little gimmick, but getting tiresome in the medium overall.

The story is unusual in that it sits smack dab in the middle of audio drama and full-cast productions. It sits there perfectly, using both functionalities of the different forms. In other words, I forget that most of the story was told through narration. The only times I was thrown out were the radio ads, but that was a product of the need to jump forward in time every decade. They arrived in late and out early.

The story is about a girl who has a strange fantasy of being whisked away from her room through her window by a German or other foreign boy. As the years go by, she gets older. For the most part, we never see her leave her room. There’s subtle hints that she knows what goes on in the house downstairs, but there’s never  a scene where we see her outside her room.

Overall this feels like a standard audio drama short with the stylistic tone of a Beverly Cleary novel, but with the complexity of a story for adults.

4/5 Stars