Series ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
Animal Farm
George Orwell · 2007
🎙 Narrated by Ralph Cosham (Blackstone Audio, 2007 edition)
90/100
👍 Worth It
This is the real deal — Orwell's lean, devastating fable about power, propaganda, and betrayed revolution holds up as one of the sharpest short novels ever written, and it earns its classroom-classic reputation honestly rather than through hype. Ralph Cosham's understated, exacting narration is absolutely worth the listen, though the bleak, violent ending (including a beloved animal sent to slaughter) means the 12+ mark should be taken seriously for sensitive younger listeners.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Bleak, violent conclusion including animal death and heavy totalitarian themes — appropriate for the stated 12+ age range but intense for younger or sensitive listeners.. We still scored it 90; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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🎙 Narration: excellent Ralph Cosham's measured, understated reading is well suited to the fable-like prose and is genuinely worth the listen on its own merits.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety68
Substance / usefulness93
Craft & writing95
Originality90
Evidence & accuracy85
Hype vs delivers78
Age-fit72
Human-eye read90
Penny’s verdict90
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