The verb “read” doesn’t do justice to Nicola Barber’s recording of THE FAIRY RING. She’s a vector connecting the listener to every detail of the story behind the famous fairy photographs. Not only do listeners hear about the girls behind the hoax but also about the social forces that incited the whole affair. Barber describes England, and the hardships of WWI, with immediacy. Her facile command of accents highlights the class distinctions, which play a key role in perpetuating the deception. Every word is imbued with life so that each angle of the story is vivid and enthralling: the technological advances, the quest to scientifically prove the existence of fairies, and the girls’ steadfast secrecy. Seldom is nonfiction so fanciful, compelling, or well paced. A.M.P Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
(Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 27, 2012
Duration: 2 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781455852307
Publisher: Brilliance Audio/ Candlewick
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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