Showing results by narrator "Dani Martineck" in All Categories

Ann M. Martin’s Baby-Sitters Club series featured a complex cast of characters and touched on an impressive range of issues that were underrepresented at the time: divorce, adoption, childhood illness, class division, and racism, to name a few. In We Are the Baby-Sitters Club, writers from the original BSC generation will reflect on the enduring legacy of Ann M. Martin’s beloved series, 35 years later - celebrating the BSC’s profound cultural influence.

Nobody could get Frederick Law Olmsted to sit still. He was filled with energy, adventure, and dreams of changing the world. As a boy, he found refuge in the peace and calm of nature, and later as an adult, he dreamed of designing and creating access to parks for a growing and changing America. When New York City held a contest for the best park design for what would become Central Park, Olmsted won and became the father of landscape architecture. He went on to design parks across America, including Yosemite National Park and even the grounds for the United States Capitol.

Libby comes from a long line of bullies. She wants to be different, but sometimes that doesn’t work out. To bolster herself, she makes a card with the message You are amazing. That card sets off a chain reaction that ends up making a difference in the lives of some kids who could also use a boost - be it from dealing with bullies, unaccepting families, or the hole that grief leaves.

Saving the multiverse starts with another origami note: Make it here, pronto. This time Meade Macon, a.k.a. Average Me, knows that parallel dimensions are real. He's met dozens of his counterparts from other Earths. What he doesn't know is that they're all about to get zapped out of existence. On Earth Zero, a rip in the multiverse is spreading to other realities and causing chaos wherever it appears. And the different versions of Meade - the Mes - are caught in the middle!

The first time I heard about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year. But life on the Mars station was grim, and since Earth was no longer an option (we may have blown it up), it was time to find a new home. That's how we ended up on Choom with the Zhuri. They're very smart. They also look like giant mosquitos. But that's not why it's so hard to live here. The Zhuri don't like us. And if humankind is going to survive, it's up to my family to change their minds. No pressure.

It all starts with a note folded into the shape of an origami octopus: "Hi, Me. Yes, you. You're me, and I'm you." If you believe this and the other origami notes that follow - which middle-schooler Meade Macon absolutely, positively does not - the concept of parallel dimensions is true, and there is a convention full of alternate versions of Meade waiting for his RSVP. It's got to be a joke.

The first Brume is a waking nightmare, overrun by literal monsters and cutthroat survivors. For Quinn, who is openly genderqueer, the silver lining is their friendship with Lia. The second Brume is a prison with no bars. Forced to “sort out” their sexuality with other teens at Camp Redemption, Quinn must also figure out why presenting as female has never felt right. The third Brume is a war zone. For Quinn, who presents as male, leading the Resistance against an authoritarian government is difficult, since even the Resistance might not accept them if they knew Quinn’s truth.

It’s springtime in Oklahoma, and Ernie, an outcast in a group of outcasts, feels uneasy. Nerves at the abandoned summer camp where he and his fellow oddballs are crashing have been on edge since the arrival of a teenager named Coral, unceremoniously dropped off from her family’s minivan one afternoon. Adding to her aura of mystery, Coral doesn’t say a word. Ever.

Thanks to Callie and their friends, Helston seems to be changing for the better: Boys are allowed to explore their magic, and girls are permitted to train as warriors. Callie is an official Helston page, Willow in on track to become king, and Elowen and Edwyn are finally safe and free of their father. Everything is…perfect. Except it isn’t. Not in Helston, where every step forward is accompanied by a storm of opposition. Even Queen Ewella and Sir Nick are struggling against the wave of fear and anti-magical sentiment growing daily, while the encroaching threat from across the bridge looms.

Celia Gilbert is the perfect friend—loyal, trustworthy, and committed to mending her best friends’ broken hearts. She’s the reason the trio is spending the summer in Lovesick Falls, the idyllic little town where Touchstone’s sort-of-uncle’s cabin was waiting to be house-sat by three unsupervised (but totally responsible) teenagers. After all, Celia, Ros, and Touchstone have been best friends since childhood. Sure, Celia is in love with Ros, and Touchstone was once in love with Celia—but that’s the beauty of a place like Lovesick Falls. If you fell in love, you could fall out.

Welcome to Affinity, the hottest battle royale video game around! The Weird Ones—Josh, Hannah, Larkin, and Wheatley—have become four of the biggest stars in gaming. But a surprising twist to their first professional Affinity tournament leaves Wheatley in huge trouble . . . with Hurricane Games, the company that made the game they all love.

In a world of mass consumption and busy schedules, taking the time to understand our own trash habits can be daunting. In Trash Talk, the ever-curious and talented Iris Gottlieb pulls back the curtain on the intricacies of the global trash production system and its contribution to climate change. From the history of the mafia’s rule of the New York sanitation system to orbital debris (space trash) to the myth of recycling, Gottlieb will help listeners see trash in a whole new way.

Being a hero is nothing like the ballads promised it would be. Scattered across the realm, Callie, Willow, Elowen and Edwyn have learned that when the fate of their world is at stake, choices are hard and the consequences are harder, even when striving for good. Hunted by both Helston and Dumoor, Callie and Willow flee to the walled city of Fairkeep in a last ditch effort to find allies.