For anyone, watching someone you've loved and admired for years start to change and deteriorate mentally is a heartbreaking experience; for Jake Moon, experiencing it as a young adolescent, it's both confusing and terrifying. With a boyish tone and adolescent intensity, narrator Fred Savage gives voice to all of Jakes's emotions: his embarrassment when some of his friends see his grandfather sitting in the dumpster behind school, the frustration of telling him the same things over and over, the pain when his grandfather doesn't recognize him, the hurt when his grandfather starts yelling at him for nothing, the resentment for what the Alzheimer's has done to his life. It's not until his grandfather disappears for days that Jake learns to accept the situation and understand how it impacts everyone, not just him.
Ages 10+Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2000
Duration: 2 hrs, 15 mins
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Live Oak Media recently caught our attention with this new read-along book and cassette program. We listened first, and were so delighted we couldn't wait to get the book. The picture book made the experience even better, but the audio recordings was strong and vibrant by itself. THE GARDENER, Sarah Stewart's Depression-era story of a young girl sent to live with her Uncle Jim in the city has a sweet, wistful quality with narration alone, but coupled with David Small's soft-edged pencil illustration, it's a total delight. The reading is repeated on both sides of the tape, one with and without page-turning signals.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Live Oak Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A sensitive performance.
Deepa is a precocious 12-year-old girl in remission from leukemia. Under the tutelage of her uncle, a house call doctor, she becomes involved in solving teen tennis player Taio's puzzling medical mystery. Deepa is unsure of herself, but she’s ready to get back to middle school after a year away for treatment. Narrator Soneela Nankani depicts Deepa's desire to be more than the "sick kid" while navigating her youthful insecurities and the social challenges of middle school. Nankani also ably portrays Deepa's growing confidence in herself as she uses her own experience with illness to help figure out what’s wrong with Taio.
A sensitive performance. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 14, 2026
Duration: 6 hrs, 32 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668182833
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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