Steven Crossley returns to the second volume featuring the Whipple family and their record-breaking achievements. Crossley is adept at assigning unique voices to a wide array of characters. The Whipples's competitors, the Goldwins, are especially well done. The father, Rex, bellows pronouncements, fully expecting agreement from all. His wife's barely concealed disdain for the Whipples is perfectly rendered, and her ridiculous cooing over the family's bizarre lizard menagerie is amusing. This zany adventure gives Crossley ample time to display his many accents. Let's hope that if there are sequels, Crossley will take them on.
(Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: 2014
Duration: 10 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781470382384
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
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:
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Live Oak Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Cousins Avery and Jax don't have much in common, including their feelings about a summer at their family's crumbling island vacation home. She thinks it's a great adventure, and he'd rather be anywhere else. Narrator Kate Coventry embodies Avery's open, exuberant, and sometimes thoughtless behavior, while Pete Cross makes clear to listeners how much quiet Jax is impacted by his father's overbearing nature. As they help clean the place up to sell it, they find pages torn from a diary that may uncover what drove their parents away from the island and each other years before. Cassandra Morris's brief narration of the mysterious diarist is compelling in its simplicity. Narrators Kate Coventry and Pete Cross provide vivacity to this exploration of family history and regrets.
(Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798225027049
Publisher: Scholastic Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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