Showing results by narrator "Laura Knight-Keating" in All Categories

For Ivy, summer means roller-coaster season, spinning cotton candy at the Fabuland amusement park, and hanging out with her best friend, Morgan. But this summer is different. One morning, Morgan finds a dead body. It's their former classmate and coworker Ethan. To make matters worse, Morgan is taken to a hospital psych ward only days later, and she's not saying much - not even to Ivy. The police claim that Ethan simply took a bad fall, but Ivy isn't convinced and realizes it's up to her to get answers.

Every year on March 26, Verity Peterson visits Ogunquit Beach, where she puts a handwritten message into a bottle and launches it into the waves. It’s a ritual of remembrance for the daughter she hasn’t seen in 16 years - not since her baby’s father, Alan, took two-month-old Gemma and disappeared. Verity keeps searching and hoping, sustained by the thought that someday she might get to be a mother to her own child. And finally, one phone call may change everything...

A little girl and her older friend poetically describe the garden as it changes through the seasons. This quiet, intergenerational story pays homage to experiencing nature as a child and as an adult. The two friends watch the birds, fly a kite, plant flowers and play in the snow. Ms. Zolotow's In My Garden was originally published in 1960.

Could she ever share the secret of The Awful Year? There is one story that novelist Josephine Bourdillon shirked from writing. And now she may never have a chance. Trapped in her memories, she lies in a coma. The man who put her there is just as paralyzed. Former soldier Henry Hughes failed to complete the kill. What's more: he never received full payment - funds that would ensure surgery for his son. As detectives investigate disturbing fan letters, a young but not-so-naive Paige Bourdillon turns to her mother's turbulent past for answers.

Mansfield, Massachusetts, is the last place 17-year-old Edie Price wants to spend her final summer before college. It's the home of wealthy suburban mothers and prima donnas like Edie's cousins, who are determined to distract her from her mother's death with cute boys and Cinderella-style makeovers. She's got her own plans, and they don't include any prince charming. But as she dives into schoolwork and getting a scholarship for college, Edie finds herself drawn to two Mansfield boys strumming for her attention.

Justine Childs is your average teenage girl, until the day ex-child-star Eva Kate Kelly moves in across the way. Eva Kate is gorgeous, seductive, and eager to invite Justine into her glittery world. Their relationship intensifies quickly, but there is a lot they aren't telling each other, and in the midst of the whirlwind, a girl lies dead. Who killed Eva Kate? Justine swears her innocence - and she'd like you to hear her side of the story.

How badly do you want to be famous? What - or who - would you sacrifice? These are the questions Justine Childs is forced to reckon with as the main suspect in the murder of it-girl Eva-Kate Kelly. Not long ago, Eva-Kate drew Justine into her orbit before meeting her untimely end in a Venice Beach canal. Prosecutors and the public want to know: Did Justine, now a social media darling in her own right, kill her celebrity best friend? Can anyone be trusted to tell the truth? Justine has always wanted people to know her name - but not all notoriety is created equal.

Johanna has had more than enough trauma in her life. She lost her mom in a car accident, and her father went AWOL when Johanna was just a baby. At 16, life is steady, boring...maybe even stifling, since she's being raised by her grandparents who never talk about their daughter, her mother Mandy. Then he comes back: Robert Newsome, Johanna's father, bringing memories and pictures of Mandy. But that's not all he shares. A tragic car accident didn't kill Mandy - it was Johanna, who at two years old, accidentally shot her own mother with an unsecured gun.

Whenever something scandalous happens at Heller High, the Red Court is the name on everyone's lips. Its members deal out social ruin and favors in equal measure, their true identities known only by their leader: the Queen of Hearts. Ember Williams has seen firsthand the damage the Red Court can do. Now, she's determined to hold the organization accountable by taking it down from the inside. But will the cost of revenge be more than she's willing to sacrifice?

No one thought that MacTrump - Lord of MacTrump Towers, Son of New York - would ascend to the highest position in the kingdom. Yet with the help of his unhappy but dutiful wife Lady MacTrump, his clever daughter Dame Desdivanka, and his coterie of advisers, MacTrump is comfortably ensconced in the White Hold as President of the United Fiefdoms, free to make proclamations to his subjects through his favorite messenger, McTweet. The Democrati, mourning the loss of their cherished leader O'Bama, won't give up without a fight.

Have you ever tasted the stars? On a cold, clear night, Molly gazes up at the bright stars above, which look good enough to eat. If she could reach far enough surely it wouldn't hurt to try just one. Would it?

Girls in New America must have a chaperone with them at all times. Because of this, Stella is never alone. She can't go out by herself or learn about the world. She can't even spend time with boys except at formal Visitations. Still, Stella feels lucky that her chaperone, Sister Helen, is like a friend to her. And then the unthinkable happens. Sister Helen dies suddenly, and Stella feels lost. Especially when she's assigned a new chaperone just days later.

This is a book of oral presentations given by us animals, for us animals, and about us animals. The cleaner fish will talk about his friend the shark and his sharp teeth. The zebra will get to tell you about all the black-and-white animals in the world. The mole knows everything there is to know about the daddy longlegs. The southern cassowa—yes, fox? What is it? Yes, you'll get to talk about geese. Huh? Yes, you'll get to talk about how delicious they are.

Teenage Stella Grey has always felt an intense recurring sense of déjà vu … often plagued by strong dreams that feel more real than her waking moments. One ill-fated morning, her dream from the night before actually comes to life as she awakens and finds her house ransacked and her mother unconscious near their broken-in front door. Her next moments are scary, shocking, and earth-shattering as she is kidnapped and delivered to a Gothic mansion, the Manor de Rêves. Over the next few days, Stella grapples with where she is and why she was taken.

The ship was built for one thing: to carry the delegations of two warring nations into neutral waters, where the heads of state would sign a peace treaty and end the war that has been raging for a generation. When it goes down, a pair of survivors—Cora, daughter of a Duran newspaper reporter, and Vivienne, lady’s maid to an Ariminthian princess—wash up on a remote island. At first, it seems like they have nothing in common—not even whether or not they want to be rescued. But the arrival of a pirate ship brings them to the realization that they do have a shared purpose: peace.

During a hiking trip with their parents in the mountains of California, cousins Owen, Vivian, and Amy are finally allowed to camp for one night at a little lake all on their own. But when a massive earthquake blocks their return path, there’s only one way home: the long way around, through a wilderness filled with fierce animals, raging rivers, unstable weather, and high passes. However, the hardest challenges the cousins face are the troubles they’ve brought with them.

From Barbara Dee, the critically acclaimed author of Maybe He Just Likes You, comes a middle grade novel about a girl who makes the choice to speak out against a problematic historical hometown figure no matter the cost—perfect for listeners of Dress Coded.

On Dinosaur Day, dinosaurs love to stomp and chomp. But they like silly singing, rowdy swimming, and yummy desserts too. All this fun makes the baby dinos want to join, but something unexpected pops up. Will the dinos accept this new addition to keep Dino Day going?

Abraham Lincoln faces a dangerous and uncertain future after leaving Springfield, Illinois, for his inauguration in Washington, DC. Luckily for him, detective Kate Warne has his back, even if he didn’t know it yet. Working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, Kate uncovers the rebel plot to kill Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore. Kate warns Lincoln’s staff that this only Southern city on his inaugural train route to Washington, DC is planning a deadly welcome. President-elect Lincoln is urged to change his route. But he refuses to cancel his commitments.

Miriam is the youngest, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know things. She’s not as gullible as her parents or older siblings think, and she is too old for ridiculous stories that make no sense. So, using her superior detective skills, she sets out to debunk all of the fantastical things that people tell gullible kids. When her first tooth comes loose, Miriam is determined to prove to her friends and family that the tooth fairy isn’t real. She’s going to lay the perfect trap . . . just as soon as her tooth actually comes out.