When Siena and her family move from Brooklyn to the Maine shore, she and her little brother, Lucca, find that their house has ghostly traces of the family that used to live there. Ariadne Meyers portrays Siena in a pragmatic tone. While she has a youthful pitch and rhythm to her voice, Meyers depicts her in a way that makes her sound fairly unflappable, whether she's dealing with ghostly visits or the need to make new friends in a new town. Meyers also transitions smoothly from the contemporary Siena to the more childish voice of Sarah, the girl who used to live in Siena's house, as well as the shell-shocked, deeper voice of Joshua, who invades Siena's dreams. When listeners finally hear the voice of Lucca, his childlike pitch and pronunciation, so different from Siena's careful words, are well worth the wait.
(Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2013
Duration: 5 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780804126861
Publisher: Listening Library
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: N/A
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Live Oak Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A sensitive performance.
Deepa is a precocious 12-year-old girl in remission from leukemia. Under the tutelage of her uncle, a house call doctor, she becomes involved in solving teen tennis player Taio's puzzling medical mystery. Deepa is unsure of herself, but she’s ready to get back to middle school after a year away for treatment. Narrator Soneela Nankani depicts Deepa's desire to be more than the "sick kid" while navigating her youthful insecurities and the social challenges of middle school. Nankani also ably portrays Deepa's growing confidence in herself as she uses her own experience with illness to help figure out what’s wrong with Taio.
A sensitive performance. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 14, 2026
Duration: 6 hrs, 32 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668182833
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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