This is an incredible production. Ray Bradbury wrote a theatrical script for his book "Dandelion Wine," and now he has turned that into an audio drama. This is a riveting production, and it really has a "Twilight Zone" feel to it at times (especially in the second CD). But dont get me wrong - it still had the charm and feel of the original novel. The music is outstanding, and the opening scene where we see "Green Town" for the very first time is presented in a medley of music with vintage cars, trolley's, people - just very elaborate and thrilling. The actors are great, and the three boys who play the leads carry the action and are very engaging. There are hundreds of sound effects that make this feel like a movie. Without question, Dandelion Wine is one of the very best Bradbury audio presentations ever created.

Dandelion Wine is a moving collection of stories of a memoriable, magical small town summer in 1928. It gives a nostalgic feeling of a childhood long gone. This is not a typical work for Ray Bradbury. There are no supernatural or futuristic happenings. If that is what you want to read disappointment awaits you. It is a semi-autobiographical recollection. It is fun to read for ages twelve and older.

Dandelion Wine tells the story of twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding spending the summer in Green Town, Illinois. It is about Douglas Spaulding realizing that he is alive. It is very heavy on figurative writing. I think it would be challenging for younger people under high school age to read.

I was particularly touched by the story of the best friend moving away. Growing up in a military family, best friends moving away happened to often. It was always a sad time.

I highly recommend Ray Bradbury's stories of boyhood and summer.

Read several times and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler.

This book is Bradbury in top form. Although not my absolute favorite title by this author, I have found a lot of joy over the years in re-reading this little book that I first picked up off a school library shelf when I was eight. It's obvious Bradbury was writing a story set in the time and place of his own childhood "as it should have been" and it makes me wonder if given time I'll think back on my own youth in similar terms. When I was little, after I read this book, all anyone had to do was say, "Watch out for Lonely One" referring to the killer who stalked Green Town's ravine at night and I was good and scared. Heck, that probably works today, too. From its unique May-December romance to its protagonist who becomes that one soul in a million to truly understand that precious gift of what it means to be alive, Dandelion Wine is simply wonderful. Read this book and travel back with the national treasure who is Ray Bradbury to the delightful world of the fantasy-powered Midwest of the 1920's (as it should have been).

I first read Ray Bradbury's miracle of a book, Dandelion Wine, when I was 16, and I have read it every year since. Over time I continue to gain a deeper appreciation for these lovely, strange, often magical vignettes (more properly parables, each one with a little implied moral) that explore the nature of happiness, the magic of love and, above all, what it means to be alive. To me, the overarching intent of the book is to remind all us adults that:

* Being alive means maintaining a balance between Discoveries & Revelations and Ceremonies & Rites. Though the latter are important, binding us to our family & our community, our future & our past, it is Discoveries & Revelations that make us think, experience, change, and grow.

* Being alive means living in the present. Even if this means giving away the tokens of a beloved past, as happens in one particularly poignant tale.

* Being alive means being connected with the world - with family, neighbors, your community, the earth. It's no coincidence that the mysterious murderer haunting Douglas Spaulding's Childhood is called The Lonely One.

* Being alive means being able to experience happiness ... not only understanding the nature of happiness, but possessing the wisdom not to let yourself be tricked into pursuing something that can't/won't make you happy.

* Being alive means recognizing the presence of magic in our everyday lives. Because magic is out there ... in the spring of a new pair of tennis shoes, in the mysteries of love, in the essence of Dandelion Wine.

Contrary to popular opinion, I do not believe Bradbury intended this to be a book about childhood. In fact, his 12yr old narrator, Douglas Spaulding, does not appear in many of the parables. I do think that Bradbury intentionally chose a child as his narrator, however, because children are inherently alive -- always discovering, always filled with wonder, connected to their family and the world and the present in ways that we begin gradually to forget as adults. Dandelion Wine is both nostalgia and a cautionary tale, challenging us to remember what it felt like to be alive and reminding us adults that - unless we take care - we may become so consumed by life that we forget to be alive.

As far as I am concerned, this book is a little bit of magic in and of itself: part essence of childhood, part elixir of wisdom. Believe and partake!

Its protagonist may be a child, but this novel is not really suitable for a thrill-seeking, modern juvenile audience.

Dandelion Wine is an exquisitely realised contemplation of life and mortality, but its themes are both too subtle and too layered for a young reader. That's fine, really. This is a novel to be anticipated and appreciated as the reader matures.

As I grow older, and with each subsequent reading, I discover a deeper melancholy and richer ironies inthe text - so that rereading this book has become a special summer ritual for me.