Alex Gino offers a warm, effervescent narration of their latest middle-grade audiobook. Nonbinary Green Gibson is a member of Jung Middle School's LGBTQIAP+ Rainbow Spectrum club. As the group excitedly prepares for the school's revamped production of THE WIZARD OF OZ, for which every actor can choose the gender of their character, Green contends with complicated feelings about their changing body and their crush on Ronnie, a fellow member of the stage crew. Gino's voicing of curious, generous Green as they navigate puberty and test the boundaries of their own and others' professed identities is profoundly compassionate and resolutely affirming. Though the audiobook occasionally has too much exposition, Gino's narration carries the day, creating a cozy, accepting world listeners won't want to leave.
(Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
Duration: 3 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781339044293
Publisher: Scholastic Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Powerful listening.
Four narrators personalize the tragedy of Houston’s 2017 Hurricane Harvey through the viewpoints of three struggling teens. Sunil Malhotra depicts Pakistani American Yasir’s many facets—his determination to succeed at soccer, his barely controlled rage about racism, his sadness about his father’s death, and his deep fear of drowning. Nikhaar Kashnani portrays South Asian American Mona. Weighed down by caring for her young brother, she loses herself in art and dreads her recurring nightmare about a flood. Josh Hurley renders Cody’s cruel, racist bullying as well as his fear of the dark, a result of being abused by his father. Christopher Salazar enthusiastically delivers interstitial news bulletins. When flooding from Harvey makes them face their worst fears, the resilient threesome’s separate stories come together and they support each other’s bravery.
Powerful listening.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780063389557
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2026
A poignant portrait of bravery.
Graham Halstead’s narration contains layers of emotion that fully reveal the character and growth of 13-year-old Lucas Dubois, an orphan living in 1944 occupied France. Halstead shows Lucas’ compassion as he rescues newborn kittens from being drowned. Lucas’ tenderness extends to a teen mother kept at the Lebensborn, a Nazi maternity home dedicated to producing soldiers-to-be. Lucas delivers groceries and conveys underground messages. Halstead also reveals the prickly nature of Alice, an older teen protecting her horse from being captured by Nazis. Halstead’s performance matches the breakneck pacing when Lucas stands up to German soldiers and confronts his own sense of insecurity.
A poignant portrait of bravery. (Historical fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781250433039
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2026
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