When we first meet 12-year-old Anand, he is carrying an armload of dishes through a crowded tea stall of Kolkata, India. His sister is sick, and his mother depends on the little he brings home. But he's a gentle boy, not hardened by this environment, kind to others, and, most of all, he believes in the magic of dreams. That is why those who keep the conch come to him for help. Somehow whorled into this conch are great powers, and it must be returned. Reader Alan Cumming's voice echoes with this mysterious energy and the noisy streets of India. It has that delicate hint of the Indian English dialect that is at once so precise and so distant, in a story that suggests both the magic of Harry Potter and the grit of Dickens's OLIVER TWIST. Both story and reader are pungent with the spiced tea and the spiked lightning of Anand's fantasy, if it is fantasy. P.E.F.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2003
Duration: 6 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners follow Merry, the longbow girl, one of the best archers in her town. When she finds a magical portal in the forest that takes her back to sixteenth-century Wales, she must use her skills to win an archery contest in order to help her ancestors keep their land. While narrator Emily Wilden brings protagonist Merry to life with a rich Welsh accent, her narration seems uneven at times. All the period characters have accents that reflect the setting of the story and transport listeners to Wales. Listeners who enjoy historical fiction and a bit of fantasy will be charmed by this tale of determination, hope, and family.
Young AdultPub Date: N/A
Duration: 11 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781501916793
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
In 1832 thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle is sailing from Liverpool to Rhode Island to rejoin her family. Shocked to discover that the families who were to have been both guardians and companions will not accompany her, Charlotte embarks on a journey filled with terror and swashbuckling adventure. The first-person narrative makes this Newbery Honor book a wonderful choice for recording. O'Karma's reading, with its hint of cross-gender differentiation, allows the listener to feel as if Charlotte Doyle herself were relating the tale. This story should be particularly alluring to adolescent girls although the fast-paced action and the nautical setting will also appeal to male listeners. Ages 12-adult.
Ages 12+Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 6 hrs
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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