Sisi Aisha Johnson sparkles as Lanesha in this Coretta Scott King Honor novel. Classroom bullies, a favorite math teacher, new friends, and close-knit neighbors of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward are voiced in a gritty dialect. The ghosts who populate Lanesha’s life are equally real. Mama YaYa, her adoptive grandmother, has a personality larger than life, but not larger than love, for the little girl shunned by her “uptown” family. Mama YaYa predicts hurricane Katrina, but her powers are baffled by the post-storm catastrophe. Levees break, wind wails, and the Mississippi climbs the attic stairs. We hear these—not in an atmospheric soundtrack but in Lanesha’s mounting terror. The listener climbs with Lanesha and her friend, TeShawn, to the roof and beyond.
Ages 8+Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2010
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781449840105
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Playful music and Emma Lysy's cheerful narration animate this brief but thoroughly enchanting audiobook for young listeners. The whimsical story unfolds as Little Star can't resist slipping out of bed every night to nibble on the delicious mooncake that her mother baked and hung in the sky to cool. In a story reminiscent of trickster folklore, Little Star's mischievous nibbling slowly diminishes the big, round mooncake in an imaginative allegory of the phases of the waning moon. Lysy's lively delivery enhances the growing sense of anticipation as Little Star wonders whether her mother notices the changes with each passing night. This is a delightful listening experience, and Grace Lin's Caldecott Honor award-winning picture-book illustrations can provide a stunning visual complement.
(Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2020
Duration: 4 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549104497
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Shy, unpopular Code is miserable when his grandfather disappears. His life goes from bad to bizarre when, on a school field trip, he trips over a hole and winds up in Mek Mound—once an ancient Okalahoman pyramid, now a land of metallic robots that threaten Earth. David Ackroyd’s narration is solid and precise. He gives a human sound to a myriad of robot personalities—a windy-voiced curmudgeon of an inventor, Code’s chatty robot buddy, and their threatening nemesis, Immortalis. Ackroyd delivers Code’s fears and hopes, as well as moments of humor, as he searches for a way to free his grandfather and vanquish the mechanical villains.
Ages 8+Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2011
Duration: 4 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780307915245
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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