Sound effects and a full cast lift this graphic novel off the page to create an immersive audio experience. While vacationing at her family’s lake house, 13-year-old Gabby, a bookworm, decides to write a mystery story about the old, empty house nearby that is at the center of a celebrity disappearance. When her rebellious neighbor, Paige, pushes Gabby to trespass on the property to hunt for clues, Gabby has to decide how far she is willing to go to uncover a story. Cassandra Morris voices Gabby with youthful innocence that makes her good-girl trepidation all the more believable. Narrator Tara Sands provides the perfect counterpoint with Paige’s tone of jaded cynicism. Other narrators are equally distinct as the various family members and neighbors.
(Graphic fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
Duration: 2 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781338637588
Publisher: Scholastic Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Far-north fun for emerging readers.
Narrator Mark Sanderlin guides listeners through this graphic early reader. When Wally Mammoth challenges friend Wolf to a game of hide-and-seek, it quickly becomes apparent that all-white Wolf has a notable advantage in their Arctic landscape. While their auk pal Otto’s voice is easily recognizable, Sanderlin’s vocal characterizations of Wally and Wolf are not so easily parsed, and they dominate the dialogue. This is one case where the audiobook and the print book should be experienced together. Even then, with no text other than speech balloons, this audiobook counts on its listeners to have some facility with letter and word recognition to accurately follow the banter.
Far-north fun for emerging readers. (Graphic early reader. 4-8)Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Duration: 3 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063478213
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2026
Listeners lose some of the fun without print; with print, they find confusion.
The titular penguins travel through time in this audio rendition of Dempsey’s series-opening graphic novel. When impulsive Splash proposes a tropical HOLIDAY (a fanfare accompanies the word’s every utterance), cautious Pablo is willing to go along…but the beach they find after a chaotic trip has dinosaurs! This agreeable romp has been lightly adapted for audio, relying on sound effects to convey the action. Listeners eager to see the humor those sounds evoke will want to read along with the book—but in the U.S., they’ll find that the print edition has been Americanized, whereas the audio has not. The audio's Briticisms have been “translated”—including the oft-repeated HOLIDAY, which is rendered in print as VACATION.
Listeners lose some of the fun without print; with print, they find confusion. (Graphic adventure. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2026
Duration: 48 mins
DD ISBN: 9781547620951
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2026
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