Top 20 Children's Audio Books

Creating the following list was much less wrenching than the compiling of my Top Ten Children’s Novels a few months ago. For one thing I had the luxury of making it twice as long, and for another there were more elements to the criteria.


I had to have listened to the audio book, naturally. And although my public library system does an adequate job of feeding my greedy consumption of this medium, I do not by any means have unlimited access all that is available. For instance the Davis County Library system to this date has not seen fit to purchase Clementine in audio form – a failing that cannot be justified.

I also had to have enjoyed the work in its original form. Let’s face it; a weak book cannot be redeemed by the most talented reader.

And finally, the reading must bring to the experience that something extra that was not present as it rattled about in voices in my own head. As someone who spends hours a day reading aloud, I have the deepest respect, not to mention the eye-gouging, hair-pulling, shin-kicking envy, for those that do it with aplomb.

20.  Inkheart by Cornila Funke.  Read by Lynn Redgrave.  The dulcet Ms. Redgrave does such a lovely job reading this first book in Funke page-escaping trilogy, it's a wonder the schizophrenic Brendon Frasier was turned to, to do the others.
 

19. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Narrated by the author with a full cast of British Actors. For the most part I find full-cast audio books irritating at best, and lobotomizing at worst; but for whatever reason this version is divine. The actress reading Lyra is captivating.
 

18. Tadpole by Ruth White. Narrated by Kate Forbes. The Appalachian accent brought to this reading is tangible.

17. Maniac McGee by Jerry Spinelli. Narrated by S. Epatha Merkeson of Law and Order fame. There is something about this favorite of mine, being read in the dry but compassionate voice of Merkeson.

16. A View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsberg. Narrated by Rick Adamson, L.J. Ganser, Agnes Hermann, Aasif Mandvi, Barbara Rosenblat, Jeff Woodman. This incising interconnected tale told by 4 different narrators has the bonus of showcasing the greatest of all audio book readers, her most exalted Barbara Rosenblat.

15. Sammy Keyes by Wendelin Van Draanen. Narrated by Tara Sands. The light young voice of this narrator suits to perfection the savvy, middle-school detective in this series.

14. Wee Free Men by Terry Prachett. Narrated by Stephen Briggs. The brogue brought to this tale of hard-drinking, hard-talking, blue fairy boys is a giggle a minute.

13. Holes by Louis Sachar. Narrated by Kerry Beyer. It is hard to imagine any telling of this flawless book not working. The narration here kicks the sublime up a level.

12. Bloody Jack: being an account of the curious adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy by L. A. Meyer. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren. The vocal ability of Ms. Kellgren to take us from the cockneyed streets of 18th century London to the highs seas in the British navy is dizzying delight.

11. Because of Wynn-Dixie by Kate DiCammillo. Narrated by Cherry Jones. Cherry Jones’ expressive, slightly-lispy, voice is so right for India Opel and company.

10. Good Masters, Sweet Ladies by Laura Amy Schiltz. Full cast of narrators. Sure I’d read the book before it won the big award, and sure I was mighty impressed with Schiltz’s skill with words. But hearing it how it was meant to be heard, moved it from a grand award-winner to pure genius.

9. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary. Narrated by Stockard Channing. Not only can Ms. Channing voice regal indignation as the First Lady in The West Wing, but she can voice the same indignation as a five- year-old.

8. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Narrated by the author. I’m not sure if a children’s book should sound this sexy, but I will happily take my ghost stories with this kind of verbal velvet.

7. Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer Holm. Read by Emmy Rossum. The young narrator used to tell this tomboy romp brings such a delicious texture to this captivating character.

6. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. Narrated by Barbara Caruso. At first I was put off by the old fashioned feel of the narration but then I realized Caruso was pulling me back in time with her voice to the red roads of P.E.I.

5. Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos. Narrated by the author. It goes to figure that Joey’s papa would be able to give Joey the perfect frenetic pitch.

4. Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. Narrated by Lois Smith. I don’t know who this Lois Smith is, but in my world she will have closet full of Lane Bryant dresses and a passel of shenanigans up her sleeve that would do Grandma Dowdel proud.

3. Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry by Mildred Taylor. Narrated by Lynne Thigpen. The power and authenticity that Thigpen brings to Taylor’s story of depression era racial issues is breathtaking.

2. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Read by the author. The “Rez” accent is not essential to appreciate this adolescent chronicle of straddling two worlds, but is sure doesn’t hurt.

1. Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling. Narrated by Jim Dale. I know I’m not very original but I can’t deny that I’ve listened to the vocal acrobatics of Jim Dale too many times to put Harry, Hermione, Dobby, and the rest, at the top of the list.

READING WHILE DRIVING, WHILE WALKING, WHILE CLEANING THE TOILET: how a dyslexic can get through 6 books a week.

I am, at times, asked how I have time to read all the books I do. The answer is two-fold:

#1 – My priorities are skewed. Many of those asking, find that taking care of a household and family and having social life should precede the siren’s call of the unread page. I on the other hand will allow all sorts of duties to be neglected in order to satisfy my compulsion to see what happens next, in whatever plot I am presently enmeshed in.

#2 –Two words - Audio Books. I don’t technically read every book I check-off on my Goodreads bookshelf. Many are books brought to me by the good people at Recorded Books (the one company that I'd beg for a government bailout of, if they were about to go under), Listening Library, Full Cast Audio, or other kind, talented, and enterprising folks in the business of transferring print to the versatile commodity of sound waves.

Most of my close acquaintances are aware that the process of reading was not an easy thing for me to master. I have come to terms with the truth that I will never be the person who can sit down and knock off a 200 page book in the time it takes to wait through a dentist visit. What takes many of my reading friends, and indeed many of my students, a mere moment in an evening to read through, will take me two or three times as long. This, however, does not stop me from forever weighing down my purse with my current book, along with a backup; in the event I might need to kill time in a waiting room, movie theater, or grocery store queue.

Long ago I discovered the best way to keep my brain entertained while about menial tasks was to engage the old neurons with audio books. This also has the added benefit of increasing my total pages read. From the time I first drove a car with a cassette player in the console, having an audio book in the vehicle has been as necessary as having an adequate amount of oil surging about the engine. Back in the days when I lived more in the adult reading world, the cases rattling between my mini-van seats were likely to be:  Dick Francis being read by the precise Simon Prebble, Jan Karon's Mitford in the folksy, warm relaxed voice of John McDonough, and the unsurpassible Barbara Rosenblat doing Sharyn McCrumb, Diane Mott Davidson, Mrs. Pollifax and of course Amelia Peabody.

Now that my reading selections have permanently regressed to pleasing my inner twelve-year-old, I find no shortage of fabulous audio selections at my disposal. Having a conveyor-belt feed of audio material, continually moving my direction by way of my county library card, insures that I am armed and ready for the most mundane or daunting tasks. I have gladly run errands with Charlotte Doyle on the high Seas. I have taken my morning constitutional with Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy melding my Rocky Mountain sunrises with crisp New England air. I’ve mowed acres with Jim Dale and the Hogwarts’ gang. Shoveled snow frenetically with Joey Pigza. I even gathered the courage to climb to the roof line and clean the frightful gutters with the help of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching and Nac Mac Feegles.

Since SLJ's Battle of the Kids Books and Fuse #8's 100 top Children's Novels have announced their champions I've been suffering serious book related competition withdrawal.  I've mention before on this blog my unhealthy obsession with countdowns and lists.  We will overlook what that says about my psyche at this time, and dive into yet another best-of list.  The Recorded Books K-12 blog,  is compiling a Top 20 Children's Audio Book List.  It's like the blogging world is either conspiring to make all my dreams come true, or is holding some heinous addiction symposium geared to suck me away from any sort of productive life  Regardless I am hooked and am furiously compiling my own submission, which I hope to post at this location as soon as possible.

What’s that you say?

The garage needs cleaning?

 Don’t mind if I do!

Come along Matilda, Harriet, and Gilly - let’s get crackin’.

Valentine Stories for the Demented.

I look forward to the week every year. Not because I get showered with all the chocolate I am due, or because I have a secret hankering to create obscure poetry out of NECCO hearts, (which now that I have put the idea in this sentence I really do have a hankering for). I adore this week of love because I get to make 6th graders squirm. I have developed a sure fire reading list for my upper grades that get’s my heart pitter-patting with the mere thought of.

Before I blind you with the brilliance of my read-aloud choices for my three oldest grades let me bemoan my poverty when it comes to valentine fare for my younger crew. Oh I have a few things that the kiddies enjoy. I have series titles in abundance: your Froggy, your Gilbert, your Rotten Ralph, and I’m sure I could scrounge up a Clifford and an Arthur.

For 2nd grade I read Horrible Harry and the Kickball Wedding. If I’d read this for the first time to myself, I never would have given it a second reading, but there is something about this Suzy Kline series that speaks second grader with a perfect pitch. Here is something I forgot: second graders love dumb jokes, especially when put to song. When one character says “I love hot dogs”, and another character responds with “Why don’t you marry one?” The giggles that ensue would gratify late night comics everywhere. When one of the characters sings a song about an unlikely union with the blindingly witty lyrics:

“Here comes the bride
Big, fat, and wide

Harry will marry

A kickball . . . all right!”

Well then, there is rolling on the floor. And the thought that someone their age will marry another someone their age, is an idea worthy of the most fervent mouth-covering, air-sucking incredulity.

All these books are well and good for my students, but if any readers of this blog can throw more dimensional titles for younger readers my way, I would be grateful.

No need to worry about 4th thru 6th however I have that covered.

For my fourth graders I turn to Beverly Cleary. I have stated in several places in this blog my adoration and kinship for Ramona. When stories of love and romance need to be told then why not let Ramona do so in Ramona the Pest. In the chapter, Ramona’s Engagement Ring, the kindergartener swears her undying devotion to Henry Huggins after he rescues her from a misbegotten romp through the mud in her new boots. I think the 4th graders identify with the much older Henry in this book and enjoy the discomfort he feels as he is forced to rescue his little neighbor. They can never believe the audacity that Ramona shows as she yells, for everyone to here, “I’m going to marry you Henry Huggins.”

For fifth-graders I threaten to read slurpy romantic stories to them as they moan and wail and then proceed to break out the ridiculous. I begin with the trickster tale by Barbara Knudsen's Love and Roast Chicken, which has nothing to do with romantic love, but it is in the title. In this South American tale Cuy, the guinea pig, outsmarts the fox over and over again.  Culminating in making him believe that if the fox would only trade places with the trussed-up guinea pig, the farmer would let the fox live out his life eating the Farmer’s chickens, and married to his daughter.

I then include William Bee’s Beware of the Frog. In this dark little ditty, Sweet little old lady Mrs. Collywobbles is protected from a thieving goblin, a smelly troll, and a hungry ogre by her pet frog’s surprising chomppers. This story also has nothing to do with love, except that at one point the frog gets all googly-eyed and sports love thought at a the brand new little old lady frog in his vicinity, which does him no good.

I end with Jeanne Willis’ wicked, Tadpole's Promise. In which a tadpole and a caterpillar fall in love. With these two metamorphosing critters their relationship can’t help but run into rocky patches. With an ending that confirms the view, that predators and prey should not swear undying devotion to each other.

6th graders are treated the piéce de résistance of horrifying dating trauma with a choice chapter from Gary Paulson’s The Shernoff Discoveries. A book in which two Jr. High outcasts try and navigate adolescence without the least clue of how to find success. The title character, Harold Shernoff’s aspirations are described by his friend as “being the first fourteen-year-old boy to win a Nobel Prize by understanding the secrets of the universe, and learning how to dress himself.”

For the purpose of this week I choose to read Chapter 3, On Discovering Interpersonal Relationships. In this chapter we witness Harold’s first date with the lovely Arlene. Harold, being the excellent student he is, prepares for the date, by what else, research at the library. During his research he learns of the methods of Sir Walter Raleigh and discovers some sort of medically oriented manual, which gives him some dubious information about what girls like. Harold does not question when he reads that any girl would welcome having her ear blown into and a tongue inserted therein. Unfortunately Harold misses the ear and scores a different facial orifice, namely the left nostril. Oh you should hear the groaning that ensues! Music to this demented librarian’s ears.

100 Books by 10-10-10: Throwing down the Gauntlet

Here's something I did not know about the phenomena known as Social Media:  It is awash in challenges. In the past few months I have been made aware of the following blogging challenges:

• Blogging every day for a month - I was not even remotely tempted.
  
• Cleaning out the backlog of unfinished posts - yeah right, I will get on that one as soon as I get around to putting my Christmas decorations from 2008 away.
  
• Commenting on at least five blogs a day – I actually signed up for that one, and I may have met the quota, but I lost interest in keeping track. I usually don’t have too much trouble blathering on other people’s blogs, as a matter-of-fact there may be several restraining orders pending to get me to stop. I do believe I got a few comments on this blog because of the challenge, and I became aware of several dandy blogs. My favorite being Literate Lives, run by a 5th grade teacher and elementary Librarian in Ohio, Karen and Bill. I am such a fan of their blog I can’t even begin to say. They do what I wish I could get around to doing on this blog, but can’t seem to stay focused enough.

At the beginning of this weekend my sister made me aware of challenge which I could not resist. I mentioned before in this blog that I am at a complete loss of self-control when faced with a list. Whether it is making list a list of some sort of favorite, or watching a grand countdown, my attention will be swallowed whole and I will be incapable of doing anything else until the criteria are met. The challenge described in this article is the 10-10-10 READING CHALLENGE – 10 BOOKS IN 10 GENRES BY 10-10-10. This challenge for our decennial year has the lovely rounded symmetry that can’t help but ensnare any OCD-minded book-enthusiast.

The rules are thus: Choose 10 genres of your own making and read 10 books in each genre by Oct. 10th of this year. The genres can be creative and should be outside of your routine reading sphere. This theoretically adds up to 100 books in less than 10 months. This may seem quite ambitious for someone who has previously admitted to belonging to the dyslexia spectrum. How then can I possible hope to achieve victory? I plan to cheat, naturally. I will also be counting books “read” with my auditory sense, AKA audio books. Also if a book happens to fit in more than one list, well obviously it will get a place in each of them. A book can’t help it if it’s popular. I am stopping short of counting the many, many picture books I read although if one happens to belong on the non-fiction shelf, well then of course it counts.  And admittedly  a few of the genres are not outside of my reading comfort zone.

My 10 Genres are:

 1. NON-FICTION/MEMOIR/AUTOBIOGRAPHY/BIOGRAPHY: nonfiction really is my Achilles heel and something I’ve been trying to incorporate more of in my reading log. Haven’t been doing so well - 10 sounds like a good start.


2. NEWBERY/HONORS HERETOFORE NEVER READ: Sure I’m great at reading the books before they are chosen but what about all those who came before. I know a few people who can boast that they have read every Newbery to date – show offs. I will be able to hold my chin high when I add 10 more. In fact I may make this an ongoing challenge for the years to come. With a finite number I’m sure to catch up at some point before the grim reaper calls.

3. FIRST IN SERIES OF EARLY CHAPTER BOOKS: Don’t think I can’t hear you sniggering at this category. Sure most of these books will have less than 100 hundred pages along with plenty of page-filling art, but don’t think this won’t be a challenge on my part. I am doing this purely for my students. There are many series on our shelves that I know nothing about. I hope to discover a few gems I can pass onto my 2nd and 3rd graders.

4. GRAPHIC NOVELS: After trying to convince parents and teachers that reading books with speech bubbles is just as valid as any other sort of reading it is time I put my eyeballs where my mouth is. Sure reading graphic novels take more brain effort than reading straight text, that is why I have so much trouble with it.

5. DEBUT AUTHORS: If it is the first book an author had published, it goes on the list. I’m a bit giddy here. I have friend whose first book is going to be released on 10-01-10 by Scholastic and I will have the thrill of putting it in my tally. In fact I don’t even need to wait because I have an early ARC (suck on that you Conspiracy of Kings show-offs).

6. 2010 TITLES: Obviously this is no sacrifice as I’m always on the quest of ferreting out the next Newbery. But really shouldn’t I get some credit somewhere?

7. NON-US AUTHORS: This is a sacrifice as naturally none of these will be Newbery worthy, but I’m reading a monstrous 500+ page book right now by a British author and I insist that it will count for something. (Are you noticing that I’m getting some sort of sick satisfaction in having my leisure time activates all of a sudden “count”?)

8. FOUND IN ADULT SECTION (adult as in grown-up not racy): The biggest sacrifice of all.

9. PUBLISHED BEFORE MY BIRTH – 1963: I noticed that this is a big deficit in my reading history. I’m sure a few good things appeared before I did.

10. 10 OLDEST BOOKS ON GOODREADS TBR SHELF: I will be like cleaning house. Without this challenge I may never get to the Le Guin that has been there forever and if I never get it read I’m in big danger of losing a few friends.

There it is.  What do you think?  Do you want to play to?  Run over to 10-10-10 READING CHALLENGE  and sign up.  Apparently we can keep in touch on Twitter.  I can be found @librariest, but I'm not very well versed in using it and you may be disappointed.  Just for Kicks and Giggles I will be posting my progress monthly on this here blog.

The Results of the 2nd Annual Snow Horse Leu-bery

This past week marked the second year in a row an assemblage of well-read students from my school, gathered in the early hours of a January morning. They were eager to view the results of the ALSC awards announcement, and to discover which of the books, they have been cramming to read over the past couple months, came out on top in their own vote. Last year in an attempt to spread my Newbery obsession onto unsuspecting participants, I suggested our gifted teacher developed a literature class for her upper grades around a Mock Newbery. As I explained here she did a wonderful job and further justified my unhealthy pre-occupation.

Disclaimer: No actual professional photographers were inconvenienced in the making of this blog post, which will be abundantly clear.

Around thirty 6th graders were given the task of reading five titles apiece.

Required:

• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
• All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg
• Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

And one of the following electives:

• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
• The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCammilo
• Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson (Our feeble attempt to include non-fiction)

The two major obstacles in pulling off this criteria is number one, convincing 6th graders that they can indeed read five books in two months. Many lightweights dropped out early on, leaving a select few worthy of being on the committee. Remember this is coming from someone who has a life-time membership in the dyslexia club. I did sympathise - but really, could they not see the vision of getting to pick their own winners and read a bunch of great books to boot?

The other obstacle was having enough copies of 2009 titles, (most only available in expensive hardback), to pass between the participants. Naturally my meager library budget did not allow me to run out and purchase multiple copies, and sadly our county library does not keep as up on newer titles as would seem prudent. This tricky wicket was circumvented by the existence of our in-house book club, consisting of several of our teachers, other staff, including our charming principal, and myself. As a matter-of-fact the above list was created with an eye to using books we had read throughout the year. In a gracious gesture the book club members lent their personal copies to the cause. Another source of economy was to exploit the offerings of the semi-annual book fair. Scholastic, in their wisdom, carried a couple titles we were able to procure with PTA approved book-fair credit.

By the Friday before the actual announcements were to be made, the student should have read their selected books, completed a visually stimulating project (see below) and voted for their pick. Following Newbery protocol they placed a ranked vote for their top three. First place votes counted for 4 points, second - 3 points and third - 2 points.

The day of our big event did not take place until a couple days after the real awards had been announced. In a misguided decision ALA choose to hold their meeting this year a week earlier than in previous years, which resulted in the award announcements being made on a the MLK holiday, a non-school day. Although a few of the kids cheated and researched the results before showing up for the big reveal, they were dedicated to keeping that information to themselves. With many thanks to the intrepid Betsy Bird of Fuse #8, for getting her bootleg video footage of the event up and running for us to view on the designated morning, we gathered about the library to watch the events unfold. One advantage of watching it at a later date was the ability to zero in on the awards most pertinent to an elementary age student. Those present were told that they should be thrilled that their own library was already in possession of so many award-winning books.

Here we see the excitement over our Gisels

They were indeed thrilled when The Lion & the Mouse took the Caldecott, as Mr. Gene Nelson from this year’s Caldecott Committee, and from our state, had held a condensed Mock Caldecott with them in December. They were early fans of Pinkney’s stunning offering.

Although donuts were promised a 'bait and switch' was deployed by healthier heads (see our above-mentioned charming principal):

The enthusiastic response when Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me took Newbery gold:


Once we were finished with the audio-visual portion of our morning, the announcement was made regarding their votes. (Last year, in an attempt to reinforce the knowledge that I work at the most awesome school in the country, the student award for "The Most Distinguished Contribution to Snow Horse Literature" was christened the Leu-bery after yours truly.)

I am now pleased to announce the results of the 2010 SNOW HORSE LEU-BERY:

Medalist:

• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Honors:

• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
• All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg
  

I mentioned before that a visually delightsome project was required to finish the project. Behold the evidence of such in the following photo gallery:

A bit of When You Reach Me:

A little flirting over lunch

Miranda's apartment with a suspiciously large key

This display has defiantly peaked the curiosity of the students yet to read the book.

The veil parts at the gameshow

Every plot climax should be immortalized in snack food.

Now some of Homer P. Figg:

How about All the Broken Pieces as cereal boxes:

Or maybe your are "Peck"ish over breakfast:

Naturally DiCammillo's The Magicians Elephant more than lent itself to drama:

12-year-olds should always be put in charge of marketing campaigns.

I believe that purple splotch is the unfortunate Madame Bettine LaVaughn