Showing results by narrator "John McDonough" in All Categories

By 6 a.m. at Cloverleaf Hospital, young patient Filbert MacFee is ready to go home. He doesn’t need any more bed rest. He doesn’t want any more shots or x-rays. And he just can’t stand any more medicine. How can Filbert fight off the nurses, technicians and doctors when all he has to help him is a box of animal crackers? And how can the little boy convince these grownups to let him go home? Roberta Karim has created a hilarious animal tale that captures the wishes of every child who has ever spent time in a hospital.

Have you ever wondered what makes popcorn pop? One second a kernel is sitting there, tiny and hard as a rock. Next thing you know, it bursts into a fluffy and delicious snack. If you’re curious about this or any of the other mysteries surrounding us every day, then What Makes Popcorn Pop? is the audiobook for you. For example, if salt isn’t hot, then how come we use it to melt ice in the winter? Where exactly does wind come from, and how come we can’t see it? Why is the sky blue?

Ever since he was a boy, Mr. Putter has always loved planes. And he still loves playing with toys - even though he is pretty old. While visiting the toy store with his fine cat, Tabby, he decides to buy a brand new, red and white, remote-controlled biplane! Remembering when he was young, how he stayed awake at night wishing for such a toy, Mr. Putter thinks about the boy he met earlier that day. The boy was a little shy, clumsy and forgetful - just like Mr. Putter was when he was that age!

Chocolate-loving penguin detective Mr. Pin is relaxing between cases when a client approaches him with a baffling problem - someone is smashing the stone gargoyles in his warehouse. In fact, all over Chicago, gargoyles are falling from the buildings. Hoping to stop the villain before someone gets hurt, Mr. Pin and his young friend Maggie scamper to the latest crime scene to collect clues. But when an empty chocolate box is found near a destroyed statue, and a penguin is seen scuttling away, police blame Mr. Pin.

As detective Xavier Kilgarvan sorts through clues and rumors, facts and fantasy, he is united with his beloved Perdita in a perilous challenge - the case of The Bloodstained Bridal Gown. Twelve years after solving the mystery of The Devil’s Half Acre, Xavier has received an urgent plea for help. A young minister and a woman from his parish have been murdered. Their torn bodies are found in an oddly suggestive position: leaning tenderly upon each other on a sofa in the rectory. Yet something even stranger is discovered upstairs....

After more than a decade, the handsome amateur detective Xavier Kilgarvan has returned to Winterthurn just in time to see the fifth young woman’s body carried from Devil’s Half Acre. A brutal fiend has left her mutilated body in this desolate plot of land filled with hulking boulders, quicksand, and twisted trees. Can detective Kilgarvan discover the forces motivating the mysterious “Gentleman Suitor” who has lured five innocent women to their deaths?

Each year along the Eastern seacoast, the wild ponies of Assateague Island are driven across a narrow strip of ocean to Chincoteague. There the shaggy, untamed ponies are sold. When young Paul and Maureen Beebe rescue a drowning newborn foal, they take her home to nearby Pony Farm. Now the foal has grown into their free-spirited pony, Misty, and has been the subject of a popular children's book.

It's summertime, and Mr. Putter and Tabby are tired of being hot. Their neighbor Mrs. Teaberry and her dog Zeke are sweaty, too. Maybe a trip to the pond will cool them off. Mrs. Teaberry packs a lunch of apple tea, tomato sandwiches, and kiwi salad. Mr. Putter likes her funny food. When they get to the pond, they rent a boat and find a shady spot for a picnic. They share tall tales while they eat. Mr. Putter tells about the time he won a worm race.

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?

Mr. Pin, a rock hopper penguin from the South Pole, loves to solve mysteries in the windy city of Chicago. There’s only one thing Mr. Pin likes better—eating yummy chocolate. That’s why his detective office is in the back room of Smiling Sally’s Diner, where the chocolate syrup is stored. With the help of his young friend Maggie, and tasty candy snacks, he makes Chicago a safer place.

Family memoirs and previously unpublished material provide the backdrop for this poignant portrait of a man whose heroic idealism inspired a nation. Edward Renehan's graceful prose allows listeners a close-up look at an entire family of larger-than-life heroes. Theodore Roosevelt taught his sons that wealth and influence were inextricably bound up with a duty to defend democracy to the death. His own exemplary conduct in the Spanish-American War helped win the war for the United States.

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.)

Mr. Putter and his faithful cat Tabby love their neighbor Mrs. Teaberry and her dog Zeke. They are always bringing over yummy food - but all Mr. Putter and Tabby do in return is eat! Mrs. Teaberry's knitting party seems like the perfect time to return the favor. But when Mr. Putter goes to serve tea to the ladies at the party, things end up in quite a tangle!

Old Mr. Putter and old Mrs. Teaberry are neighbors. When Mrs. Teaberry hurts her foot, Mr. Putter and his cat, Tabby, offer to walk her little dream dog, Zeke, for a week. But Zeke is no dream dog. Zeke is a nightmare. On the first day, he drags Mr. Putter and Tabby through the neighborhood. On the second day, he wraps them around trees. On the third day, he chases big dogs until the big dogs turn around and chase them.

This collection of short poems from Newbery Award-winning author Paul Fleischman delightfully celebrates the essence of birds. The companion to Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, its poems feature two voices speaking sometimes together and sometimes in turn. Experience the magic and magnificence of the immortal phoenix. Enjoy the fluttering elation of finches at dawn and the swiftness of swallows at dusk. And empathize with the loneliness of the pigeon in the Cincinnati Zoo.

Lad, a handsome collie, rules the Place for his master and mistress. With his sleek mate, Lady, at his side, he chases away neighborhood dogs and intruders. But one day, when the master brings home a spirited young male, Lady starts to spend all her time running with the newcomer. Will Lad be able to win back her loyalty? For Lad, the excitement is just beginning. Throughout this classic story, he faces one thrilling adventure after the other.

In this delightful tale by Newbery Award winner Cynthia Rylant, Mr. Putter doesn't share Mrs. Teaberry's enthusiasm for a class on 100 ways to cook beans. And yet - finding it hard to say no to his kind friend - he attends the class with her anyhow, expecting to be bored.

Mr. Boorschmidt's Stupendous and Unexcelled Circus is back in town. This time one of its attractions is really out of this world. In the big ring are six Martians and their flying saucer! But Boorschmidt doesn't stop there. He wants something even more spectacular to offer the audience, so he asks Freddy for help. Freddy knows what to do. He organizes an amazing baseball team.

While bird-watching in Nowhere Land, Ferocious Beast, Maggie, and Hamilton Hocks are stopped in their tracks. Before them, a most amazing sight: a rabbit struggling to dig up a carrot! "Why is that so amazing" you ask? Well, it’s the carrot of all carrots, the most enormous carrot of all time! Nedley the rabbit refuses their offer of help, even as he grows grumpier with each shovelful of dirt. Soon realizing that there is no way he can accomplish such a humongous task on his own, he accepts help.

What does a little bear wear as he dances and plays his way through a sunny summer day? Young listeners will be fascinated as John McDonough's upbeat narration perfectly delivers this book's lilting, musical rhyme and joyful, exuberant rhythm that make Jesse Bear's day a pleasure for everyone.