Chris Nunez gives 12-year-old Santiago Cruz and his 4-year-old sister, Angelina, distinct yet easy-to-understand Hispanic accents in this story of desperate flight from a burning village in the mountains of Guatemala. The children's escape takes them to a cayuco (a cross between a canoe and a kayak) and a dangerous sail across hundreds of miles of open water to safety on a Florida beach. With luck, ingenuity, and courage, Santiago battles hunger, sleep-deprivation, the terrible sun, the unforgiving ocean, pirates, storms, and even "a river of garbage" as he flees guerilla soldiers who are intent on destroying the descendants of the Mayan people. Based on true stories from the height of the Guatemalan civil war in the 1980s, this is a rousing survival story. Nunez keeps listeners grounded in the face of the intense challenges these youngsters face.
Young AdultPub Date: Feb. 23, 2010
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780739372678
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Henry's parents are kidnapped while they travel the world. Henry is confused and lost when he's sent to his aunt, uncle, and cousins in Kansas. His bewilderment increases when the plaster of his bedroom walls cracks to disclose 100 strange cupboards that are portals to odd places. Vivid descriptions of fascinating lands hold listeners' attention through the story's many unexplained facts as does the steady, solid narration by Russell Horton. Horton accurately modulates the characters' up-and-down emotions, adapting his pace quickly to the changes. Listeners are able to keep up with the rapidly introduced characters because of Horton's stand-out portrayals.
Ages 8+Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2007
Duration: 6 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780739362778
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A cast of narrators shares these stories, each told from the point of view of a supporting character from Riordan's Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series. We hear from Halfborn Gunderson, Samirah al-Abbas, Alex Fierro, and more. In "So's Your Face!" narrator Sile Bermingham gives fiery einherji Mallory Keen an Irish lilt, and in "I Play with Fire," Bahni Turpin gets to pull out the stops creating voices for a meeting of immortals in Muspellheim. Riordan's signature humor is here--Thor makes a guest appearance in each story, running through the nine worlds in his leather short shorts. The characterizations might not quite match what listeners heard in earlier installments, but diehard Magnus Chase fans can still enjoy this collection.
(Fantasy. 8-14)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
Duration: 3 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780525641834
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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