Narrator Robin Eller delights with this charming story of a Muslim girl's close relationship with her blended family and supportive community. The focus is the significance of her mother's khimars. With a gentle voice that sounds like a smile, Eller creates a child's view of a day in one of these beautiful, flowing headscarves. This audiobook may be an enlightening listen for those unfamiliar with this cultural tradition, and Eller's youthful buoyancy creates a genuine connection to the universal appeal of childhood innocence and imaginative play. A medley of diverse music enhances the joyful mood, often filling pauses in the narration that listeners will especially appreciate if they are enjoying the picture book's cheerful illustrations. This is an engaging story, easily accessible to children and families of all backgrounds.
. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2020
Duration: 10 mins
DD ISBN: 9781662002335
Publisher: Dreamscape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
With deliberate pacing and a clear-toned Castilian accent, narrator Carlotta Brentan transports listeners to fifteenth-century Spain during the Inquisition. Seven-year-old Paloma is the granddaughter of a powerful Jewish leader. But even for wealthy Jews, life is as precarious as a "ceiling made of eggshells." As she gets older, Loma longs to get married and have her own family even as she watches her community suffer persecution, mob violence, exile, imprisonment, and forced conversion to Christianity. The audiobook shines a light on Loma's day-to-day life as Brentan voices her multigenerational family, including her stern, harsh mother; her hypocritical older brother; her meek, dutiful sister-in-law; and her wizened grandfather. Loma's own voice reflects the youthful hope and heartrending injustice of her time.
(Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063007215
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Michelle Weisborn vividly portrays Evie Steinberg. Weisborn's youthful tone reflects Evie's delight when she moves to Southern California and discovers that Dara, her BFF from summer camp, goes to her new school. Weisborn also captures the anxious yet determined feelings of the seventh grader who demands perfection from herself after messing up her father's cryptozoology work. Soon, Evie is shocked to learn that Dara has told her schoolmates that Evie is weird and a liar. Evie sets out to expel the cruel golem who surely must have taken over Dara and works to regain her father's trust. Weisborn evenly handles themes that range from bullying and expectations--one's own and those of others--to self-acceptance.
(Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
Duration: 6 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781547613083
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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