Magic, mystery, and history meet when the old-fashioned spectacles Winna's grandfather gives her grant wishes. Narrator Joniece Abbott-Pratt depicts Winna's youth with a bright voice. Her slightly hesitant delivery is central to Winna's tone of intelligence tempered by having to be polite to a world of fools. Winna has enough worries with her mom being sick in the hospital and keeping her little sister in line while they stay with their grandparents. Now she has to team up with her pugnacious cousin to find a long-lost relative before a curse kills her mother. Abbott-Pratt fills the 1960s small-town setting with vibrant characters, accents, and tender emotion. There is nothing dated about the lessons this audiobook teaches about racism and trauma.
(Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2024
Duration: 5 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9798350845907
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The audiobook has the comforting, magical quality of an irresistible bedtime story.
Author/narrator Coelho’s bright, friendly first-person narration brings 12-year-old Relic Hamilton to life. When Relic encounters a dangerous genie in his grandfather’s antique shop, he leaves his ordinary London life behind for a supernatural adventure that transports him through history and around the globe. While the journey has thrills and scary moments, the characters always have hope—a central theme of the audiobook. Coelho brings variety to the voices of his other characters, like Relic’s grandfather’s “Jamaican-teacher voice” and the gravelly rumble of a pirate captain from the Age of Sail who sounds exactly like an archetypal pirate ought to.
The audiobook has the comforting, magical quality of an irresistible bedtime story. (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798349162169
Publisher: Dreamscape
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
A magical blending of fantasy and reality.
Narrator Emily Eiden's expressive rendition of Auden "Denny" Greene and her best friend Runa is feminine and childlike, suitable for a tale of girls on the cusp of turning 12. Denny and Runa manifest their active imaginations in a magical world they call Sorrowfeld, filled with dragons and princesses, but Denny is dismayed to find that Runa seems to be growing out of this world and into a new phase of her life. Denny, however, still needs the escapism of Sorrowfeld to cope with challenging circumstances in her real life—while in Sorrowfeld, Princess Auden struggles against actual dragons.
A magical blending of fantasy and reality. (Fantasy. 8-13)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
Duration: 7 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063348189
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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