It’s a challenge to produce a successful audio experience of Newbery winner MOON OVER MANIFEST. It alternates between the years 1918 and 1936 in Manifest, Kansas, where 12-year-old Abilene Tucker has gone to live while her father works on the railroad in Iowa. Newspaper articles and letters from both decades contribute to this lyric story, which plays hopscotch with memory. The story’s characters have 21 different American accents. The complex result requires many production and narrative choices. Jenna Lamia’s bittersweet reading evokes Abilene’s uncertainty in her new home. Lamia also portrays Jinx and Ned with believable boy voices, and she handles the accents of Manifest with competency. Kirby Heyborne reads Ned’s letters in clear, unaccented prose. Cassandra Campbell’s voice is a little too well modulated for Hattie Mae’s journalistic fervor. Contemplative listeners will find Vanderpool’s gem brought to life with sensitivity. This review refers to Listening Library’s second audio edition.
(Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 28, 2011
Duration: 8 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780307968159
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
Devon warmly depicts a quirky and loving family with his engaging performance.
Narrator Chris Devon returns for a bravura performance of this sweet, silly, and poignant second installment in Wood’s series. Seagull Gully and badger Septimus are busy raising their three chicks, and an already hectic household becomes that much more chaotic when a group of forest badgers comes for an extended visit. They want to dig a den where?! With his British accent and excellent pronunciation of Italian words, Devon immerses listeners in their various adventures and misadventures and conjures the many delights of the seaside town where they live. Gully’s dialogue consists exclusively of “Caw,” and Devon injects impressive variation and emotion into each utterance.
Devon warmly depicts a quirky and loving family with his engaging performance. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
Duration: 2 hrs, 52 mins
DD ISBN: 9798349115998
Publisher: Dreamscape
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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