Hamilton excels at grounding listeners while channeling the novel’s whimsy and mystery.
Nikola Hamilton’s narration anchors listeners as 12-year-old Roman tries to understand his complex family history. With a comforting frankness, Grandpa Henry tells Roman fantastical stories, like the tale of his own victimization by the Toe Beast, a creature grown from his amputated toe. This leads to other stories featuring a curious girl and her pack of dogs and a bucket that makes time travel possible. In the past, these stories frightened Roman, and Hamilton’s narration reflects Roman’s growing courage—until he finally travels through time in order to decipher strange symbols and secrets.
Hamilton excels at grounding listeners while channeling the novel’s whimsy and mystery. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: March 24, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 57 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217280537
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: today
Listeners can expect fantasy at its silliest, with humorous voices to match.
Daniel Henning narrates this middle-grade fantasy with a dose of zaniness. Henning creates individualized voices for a cast that includes Adelbert, the forgetful magician; an irritable king; a host of royal attendants; a curmudgeonly, wish-granting tree; and the heroine, Bernadette the Brave. Bernadette is a kind, soft-spoken girl who is “hired” (kidnapped) to serve as keeper of the 24 goats upon which the king’s castle improbably rests. As the story's narrator, Henning is humorous and conversational, recounting Bernadette and Adelbert’s quest to rescue the turtle, Perseverance. This fun romp is completely out of order, beginning in Chapter 13, and dotted with morals, Latin, and the bleating of goats.
Listeners can expect fantasy at its silliest, with humorous voices to match. (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
Duration: 6 hrs, 35 mins
DD ISBN: 9798899737732
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
Yansen’s gentle voice and languid cadence match the atmospheric prose.
Karise Yansen narrates this tenderhearted audiobook about a girl navigating the underworld. Shortly after pandemic-era isolation ends, 12-year-old Eleanor and her neighbor, Justin, visit a mosaic depicting Orpheus and Eurydice. A tragic accident occurs, killing them both, and Eleanor travels to Eventide House, where other children who have died reside. Yansen narrates with a British accent, and her youthful voice conveys a variety of characters as they come to terms with dying. She realistically depicts big feelings of loneliness and wonder, emotionally connecting to Eleanor as she investigates her new home and searches for a way back to the living.
Yansen’s gentle voice and languid cadence match the atmospheric prose. (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: March 24, 2026
Duration: 4 hrs, 57 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668654958
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: today
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