Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Literature & Fiction

World War II is over, but the Honeycutt family is still feeling its devastating effects. Especially Daddy, who can’t forget what he saw on the battlefield and sometimes can’t cope with everyday life. Fourteen-year-old Ellie Honeycutt finds escape at the NASCAR speedway and in her dreams of travel and college. Her twin sister, Ida, clings to family and finds solace in her sketchbook. Once inseparable, the two sisters find themselves growing apart with the start of high school.

Martin longs to be a musician. But a piano wouldn't fit in his mobile home, even if his father would let him have one. Martin's father wants him to play baseball and forget about all that "sissy" music stuff. If it weren't for the harmonica he plays when he's out of the house, and the music he creates in his head when his father is yelling at him, Martin would have no music at all. Then he sees a violin for sale for $50 in a pawn shop window, and he can think of nothing else. There's just one problem: he only has $12.78.

It’s the summer of 1959 at the foot of Bakers Mountain in western North Carolina when 13-year-old Jackie Honeycutt first bumps into Thomas Freeman fishing on the riverbank. They hit it off, and Jackie hopes the two of them can be friends. But Jackie is white, and Thomas is Black—and Jackie quickly learns their growing friendship won’t be easy.

The war in the Bear Highen is over. Aster, at thirteen, has defeated her uncle and become the High Queen. Peace is good, but things are still difficult: political challenges confront her, personal challenges stymie her, and the massive Hemoth Bear, symbol of the House of the Bear, is beginning to resist her control. When, during a royal hunt, Aster stumbles on a young girl living in a nest of wyverns, matters become even more complex. Because this girl is not a girl at all. She is a living star, come down from her constellation, on a mission both terrible and glorious.

Former means once-upon-a-time. Nina tried as hard as she could to keep track of everything, but somehow she still forgot about her school project. And her friend Jay is mad at her. With little sister Kavita’s birthday party right around the corner, and her longtime friendship with Jay on the rocks, there’s a lot going on.

It’s Tally Tuttle’s first day of second grade, and she’s super nervous! She’s new in town and worries that she won’t fit in, so when everyone starts teasing her about her full name, Tallulah, she wishes she could retreat into a shell … Then, all of a sudden, she does! Tally is shocked to discover that she’s turned into a turtle! She’d heard that Mrs. Norrell’s class was special, but she hadn’t expected this.

Evelyn has a constant need for perfection that’s blown some fuses among her robotics teammates, and she’s worried nobody’s taking the upcoming competition seriously. Allie is new to school, and she’s had a history of short-circuiting on teachers and other kids. So when Allie is assigned to the robotics team as a last resort, all Evelyn can see is just another wrench in the works!

Now that Daddy has returned from fighting Hitler and Ann Fay is home from the polio hospital, life should get back to normal. But Ann Fay discovers she no longer fits easily into old friendships and Daddy has been traumatized by the war. Her family and social life are both falling apart. Ever responsible, she tries to fix things until she finally admits that she herself needs fixing.

One of Rube’s best friends, Pearl, is running for class president, and Rube knows just the gadget to help her win … or so he thinks. No matter what he does, all of his attempts to help Pearl end up backfiring. To make things worse, popular girl Emilia invites Rube to go with her to the big Switcheroo Dance—that is, if he invents something special to help her impress her followers online.

Marianne Blume knows she’s one of the stupid kids. After years of trying and trying and feeling like she's always failing, she has mastered the art of turning off her brain whenever questions or lectures arise. She gets by in school on a combination of luck, deflection, and charisma–that is, until she lands in the classroom of Mr. Garcia. To avoid flunking Mr. Garcia's class, Marianne joins her school's Quiz Quest team, hoping the move will ingratiate her to him, the team's coach.

For nine-year-old Lorraine Jackson, the Sanitation Strike of 1968 hit close to home. Lorraine marched with her daddy and other sanitation workers through the streets of Memphis fighting for equal rights and safer working conditions. With her mother, she boycotted stores. Lorraine’s life was forever changed when she heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preach his famous sermon “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” to the tired and frustrated strikers. Dr. King was tragically killed the next day, and hope seemed shattered.

Once in your life, sometime after your first memory but before you can drive a car, something is going to happen to you that doesn’t happen to anyone else you know. It might be something good. It might be something bad, or special, or funny, or shocking. For Millie, it’s something really sad. Lolo, her neighbors’ infant daughter, dies—unexpectedly, suddenly, inexplicably—on the night Millie babysits. There’s nothing she could have done. There’s nothing she can do now. So how does she go on? She does what you’ll do. She finds her way.

Ellis, Dante, and Popcorn Bob are on an important top-secret mission in America. (Ellis’s dads are there too. But they don’t know about the mission.) When Popcorn Bob last escaped the clutches of Coraline Corn (the evil owner of Popcorn & Co.), she said that there are more live popcorn kernels in America—just like Bob! Bob can’t wait to meet his family. If they exist.

"Apples, ho!" This delectable tale is a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Daddy has uprooted the family to move to Oregon—but not without his babies—apples, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, and cherries! Will Daddy's precious plants persevere? This tall tale is loosely based on a real-life fruit pioneer who brought his fruit trees along on the Oregon Trail.

Ann Fay Honeycutt accepts the role of "man of the house" when her father leaves because she wants to do her part for the war. She's doing well with the extra responsibilities when a frightening polio epidemic strikes, crippling many children. Ann Fay reads each issue of the newspaper for the latest news of the epidemic. But soon she discovers for herself just how devastating polio can be. As her challenges grow, so does her resourcefulness. Ann Fay discovers her ability to move forward, experiences the healing qualities of friendship, and explores the depths of her own faithfulness.

Jade is starting eighth grade in a new city—Atlanta. She just wants to go back to Chicago, where her friends are. Where her Abuela lives. But Jade does like walking to her new school on the trail that winds through the woods behind her house, where lush flowers bloom and soft leaves rustle beneath her feet. In the forest, Jade feels protected. Sometimes, it's as if it's listening to her. There, Jade meets Itztli, an elderly storyteller who exists between dreams and reality. In the golden afternoons when Itztli appears, he steps out of the forest as a lithe, agile jaguar.

Quinn spends the morning in their workshop, and emerges with Something Great! But everyone wants to know … what is it? First their mom, then their sister. No one seems to understand: Something Great isn’t supposed to be anything. Look at all the fun things it can do! Swing like a pendulum! Fly through the air! Make rainbows! Can’t Quinn just share the joy of their new invention without a label?

One morning, an old woman brings the little Toymaker a candy tin she played with as a girl. The little Toymaker takes the tin and TA-DA! comes back with a sparkling new toy for the old lady. But it seems that what she truly wants was lost a long time ago. And it will take all the Toymaker's skill, magic, and empathy to bring it back for her.

Virgil is making his older siblings trek to a mountain lake on a trip unlike any they have taken before. They carry precious cargo: the ashes of their beloved mother, who asked that her remains be scattered at her favorite spot. But when a forest fire is sparked by a bolt of lightning at the exact moment when their van breaks down, the journey quickly turns to disaster. Virgil finds himself separated from his sister and alone in the wilderness. He isn’t sure he can make it, but with the memory of his mother and her lessons to guide him, he learns that survival starts with letting go.

Twelve-year-old Maren is sure theater camp isn’t for her. Theater camp is for loud, confident, artsy people: people like her older sister, Hadley and her cinema-obsessed, nonbinary bunkmate, Theo. But when a prank goes wrong, Maren gets drawn into the hunt for a diamond ring that, legend has it, is linked to the camp’s namesake, Charlotte “Charlie” Goodman, a promising director in blacklist-era Hollywood. But they’re not the only ones searching for the ring, and with the growing threat of camp closing forever, they're almost out of time.