Timothy Andrés Pabon and E.J. Lavery narrate this tender exploration of grief. Two years after his older sister disappeared while surfing, Kai Sosa still struggles to find a sense of normalcy. He earns a place on the elite swim team his sister had once dominated but worries that he will let the team down the way he fears he let Cali down. Pabon voices Kai with increasing intensity as he fights to break through his swimming barriers and obsesses over a well-loved book of mythology Cali left behind. E.J. Lavery lyrically narrates brief interludes from that mythology featuring an underwater realm filled with aquatic warriors. A gentle soundtrack of ocean noises and instrumental music helps blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
(Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 3 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781546151319
Publisher: Scholastic Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: yesterday
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: yesterday
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: yesterday
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