Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Growing Up & Facts of Life

Grandpa Green wasn't always a gardener. He was a farm boy and a kid with chickenpox and a soldier and, most of all, an artist. In this captivating new audiobook, listeners follow Grandpa Green's great-grandson into a garden he created, a fantastic world where memories are handed down in the fanciful shapes of topiary trees and imagination recreates things forgotten.

Lincoln is happy to be going to Japan as a martial arts exchange student. So is Tony, his barrio brother from San Francisco. They're excited about living in a dojo, or school for martial arts, and practicing the art of kempo. When Lincoln arrives in Japan, he is surprised to find that the dojo is a vacant lot. He will be living on a small farm with the Ono family, whose mother reminds him of his own. The father likes to play practical jokes, and the son, Mitsuo, likes baseball.

Best-selling author Georgia Bragg delights young people with her quirky characters and unique subject matter. How They Croaked provides all the gory details of the awful ends of 19 awfully famous people. It details Ludwig Van Beethoven’s expansive finale, Henry VII’s explosive end, Albert Einstein’s great brain escape, and Marie Curie’s glowing demise.

On Sunday night, April lies in bed, trying to sleep. She is excited. On Friday she and her mother will take a train to her grandmother’s house. Almost a week is such a long time for a little girl to wait. But as April takes a bus ride, goes to the market, visits her father at work, and eats lunch at a diner, the days slip by. Everywhere she goes, there are people who are different sizes and shapes, and have different needs. At last it’s Friday; April and her mom are on their way. At her grandmother’s, April will see lots of flowers, each one as different as the people she has seen during the week.

Eddie Beckey makes lists for just about everything and everyone in her life. And for matters of real importance, she wears (and snaps) an array of colored rubber bands on her wrist. Unfortunately, the world is not always so orderly and knowable.

Twelve-year-old Koby isn't like the other kids in her class. She lost her right foot in an accident four years ago, and she is keenly aware that her classmates don't know how to act around her. The only place she feels at home is in her small boat, where she can watch whales play in the ocean. When Koby discovers a stranded mother whale and her baby, she realizes that their survival depends on her ability to keep them breathing through the night. But she is alone, and help is nowhere in sight.

A sleepy town on the coast of Maine is the last place where 13-year-old Manuel wants to spend his summer vacation. He'd give anything to be back in New Haven, with the greatest pizza in the world and a twelve-theater Cineplex around the corner from his house. So far the only thing that Manuel has found to do is watch Zeke, a cranky, old lobsterman, unload his boat, while a one-legged seagull perches nearby. But Manuel soon discovers that even sleepy New England towns can bring trouble.

Bear wants to be a comedian. He dreams of performing onstage and making his friends laugh. The only problem is that Bear has stage fright. Performing in front of others makes his knees knock and his fur freeze. What’s a bear to do? Hopefully, with a little help from his friends, Bear can find a way to achieve his goal.

Best-selling author Dan Gutman delights young listeners with the what-if appeal and gentle humor of his Baseball Card Adventures, featuring a time-travelling boy who loves baseball. When Stosh travels into the past to meet Roberto Clemente, a legendary ballplayer and a beloved humanitarian, he’s got only one goal - to warn Roberto not to get on the doomed plane that will end his life in a terrible crash.

Kathryn Erskine won the National Book Award for her mesmerizing novel Mockingbird. In The Absolute Value of Mike, a young man grows up during an unlikely adventure. Despite his best efforts, Mike has a hard time communicating with his calculus-loving father - and having a math learning disability certainly doesn’t help. But when Mike is sent to Pennsylvania to work on an engineering project, the young man learns valuable lessons from the colorful characters he meets.

Deep in the mountains of North Carolina, there once lived a young boy with such a poor memory that he sometimes forgot his own name. Now, Plug Honeycut's mother loved him. So she was the only one who had enough faith in her son to send him on an errand. Leaving their hilltop cabin, he started toward the distant country store to buy some soap. As Plug trudges along the path, over the hills and streams, he also follows the erratic trail of his elusive memory.

Ever since his mother died and his father went to Brazil for a scientific expedition, 14-year-old Jacob Lansa has been staying with his grandfather in Poughkeepsie. He longs to join his father and help him set up a jaguar preserve in the rain forest, but he can't miss school. When his father invites him down over spring break, he jumps at the chance.

Wanda Petronski is different from all the other girls in Room 13. Every day she wears the same faded blue dress to school, and every day she tells about her hundred dresses at home. Her classmates joke about her imaginary clothes - until they learn the wonderful secret of the dresses.

A terrible secret is making the Ferocious Beast sit next to the River of Dreams and cry. Maggie and Hamilton Hocks want to help. "Tell us your secret and then you’ll feel better," they urge their sad friend. "Sometimes I get scared," the Ferocious Beast finally admits. But what could frighten a big, ferocious beast? Is it something worse than sea monsters, ghosts, and spaceships from another galaxy? These are the things that scare Maggie and Hamilton, even though they’ve never seen them. But how can they get the Ferocious Beast to tell them his fears?

Henry and his big dog, Mudge, like to play outside. But when a thunderstorm begins, Mudge is unhappy. He wants to go inside. He wants to hide from the loud thunder and sharp lightning. Soon the storm is very windy and noisy, and the lights have gone out. As Mudge hides his head in the sofa, Henry and his parents light candles and play cards. Then, armed with a flashlight, Henry goes on a rescue mission.

Here's a spooky tale of mystery and witchcraft that always captures the imagination of young listeners. When Jessica finds a scrawny kitten, she brings him home and names him Worm. But then Jessica begins to change. Is Worm bewitching her?

Erethizon Dorsatum—better known as Ereth, the self-centered, foul-tempered old porcupine—is having a birthday. And he fully expects his best friend Poppy, a deer mouse, to help him celebrate in a grand manner. But Poppy has gone off somewhere with her husband, Rye, and it appears she has forgotten all about it. "Belching Beavers," says Ereth, "I am not angry!" (Though perhaps he is—and more than just a little.)

A championship surfer, Jack Lopez accurately depicts the art of surfing in this tale described as The Outsiders for a new age.

In the Break tells the story of 15-year-old Jamie and Juan, best friends who live and breathe surfing. They don’t have a care in the world when they’re out on the water. But when an argument between Jamie and his abusive step-father comes to blows, Jamie turns to the one person who can help. Together the two (plus Jamie’s sister Amber) head for Mexico - surfboards stowed in the back.

The recipient of a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor, Andrea Davis Pinkney is the popular author of numerous picture books and young adult novels. Sit-In recounts the historic events of 1960, when four black college students attempted to integrate a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Tyler Stoudt’s first assignment in sixth grade is to make a family tree. Tyler has no idea how she will complete the project. The only family she has is Papa. Determined to do her best, she begins to ask her father questions about their family. When he becomes angry, Tyler wonders if the truth is worth the hurt she is causing. But her need to know outweighs everything else, and she presses him for answers. The story he reveals to her is nothing she ever expected.