Narrator Damany Jackson's voice pulses with energy and warmth as he channels the thrumming exuberance that fuels this picture-book biography of musician Muddy Waters. Jackson's exclamations and exhortations layer sound and movement onto Mahin's electric cadence, dovetailing seamlessly with illustrator Evan Turk's explosive mixed-media artwork. Music runs throughout the story, precisely fading in and out in order to illustrate different periods in Muddy's life and musical education. The introduction of a glass slide is accompanied by a smashing bottle, a discordance that is softened as that bottle begins to sing on the neck of the guitar. Fish fry, wring-out-your-worries blues music springs up, bubbling with joy and sadness and life. This production is more than a recording--it's a pitch-perfect multisensory listening experience, guaranteed to resonate with listeners of all ages.
(Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2018
Duration: 19 mins
DD ISBN: 9781974906864
Publisher: Dreamscape
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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