Author/narrator Jin Wang introduces young listeners to the pleasures and challenges of life in the tiny village where she lived in the 1980s. Nan Ba Zi in Inner Mongolia, China, was so remote and dry that families took turns fetching water from the nearest town with a functioning well. Wang's warmly evocative narration highlights her memories of a childhood spent hunting mushrooms and climbing trees despite her mother's constant worry over the state of her clothes. With obvious affection Wang thoughtfully recounts both the beauty of the world around her and the tremendous amount of hard work required to live in the harsh landscape. Her mischievous and fun-loving nature is evident, especially when she emphasizes her own remembered justifications for being just a little bit naughty.
(Memoir. 7-9)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
Duration: 2 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780593865941
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ken Coleman's expertise as a baseball announcer enriches this history of the Boston Red Sox since the sale of Babe Ruth to the N.Y. Yankees. He leads off with a grim account of this transaction, which started the curse that has plagued the Red Sox ever since. The sermon-like tone will amuse non-believers and comfort listeners who are certain the team is cursed. Like the ups and downs of Boston's play through the years, the narrator's voice fluctuates--exuberant and then despondent--in tone and tempo accurately reflecting the mood of any given baseball season. The narrator is very successful at conveying the emotional roller coaster ride Red Sox fans have endured as a result of the curse of the Bambino.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A perfect portrayal.
Nickel reads her imaginative picture-book biography of Hans Christian Andersen in a fairy-tale tone. She weaves the facts of the famous storyteller’s life together with a sense of whimsy, stressing rhythms and repetitions that captivate. It’s as if she embodies the storytelling spirit of the poor shoemaker’s son who possessed a nose “two times as long” and a heart “two times as tender” as everyone else around him. Nickel’s narration and writing are as inventive as Andersen, who, when rejected by theaters, dance studios, and choirs, created cut-paper characters while he told children his tales. The man who saw himself as an ugly duckling is finally admired as “the most beautiful swan of all.”
A perfect portrayal. (Picture-book biography. 5-7)Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Duration: 6 mins
DD ISBN: 9798898851132
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2026
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