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<\/p>\nThe luggage is loaded, and the gas tank is full. Destination\u2019s mapped. Ready to go? Press play!<\/p>\n
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MIDDLE GRADE<\/strong><\/p>\n Flying Lessons and Other Stories<\/strong> edited by Ellen Oh, read by full cast<\/p>\n Some of the most beloved, lauded, and awarded children\u2019s authors \u2013 including Matt de la Pe\u00f1a, Grace Lin, and Walter Dean Myers \u2013 are gathered here to share this entertaining collection that is guaranteed to resonate with diverse audiences. Here\u2019s a bonus: some of the writers \u2013 Meg Medina and Tim Tingle, for example \u2013 serve as their own narrators, as well.<\/p>\n Harbor Me<\/strong><\/a> by Jacqueline Woodson, read by N\u2019Jameh Camara, Jose Carrera, Dean Flanagan, Angel Romero, Toshi Widoff-Woodson, Mikelle Wright-Matos, Jackson Leroi Widoff-Woodson, Jacqueline Woodson<\/p>\n Every Friday afternoon, six middle schoolers are ushered into a former art room, cleverly renamed the \u201cA-R-T-T room \u2013 A Room To Talk,\u201d and encouraged \u201cto talk about the things kids talk about when no grown-ups are around.\u201d Woodson\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0her own children feature in the stellar cast. The audio includes a bonus interview between Woodson and her son Jackson.<\/p>\n In the Shadow of the Sun<\/strong><\/a> by Anne Sibley O\u2019Brien, read by Jackie Chung<\/p>\n What do you do when your family trip turns out to be to North Korea of all places? Mia and Simon head to Pyongyang with their aid-director father, only to have him disappear, leaving the intrepid siblings to save him \u2013 and themselves. Chung narrates a heart-thumping, treacherous journey with convincing verve.<\/p>\n Jefferson\u2019s Sons<\/strong><\/a> by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, read by Adenrele Ojo<\/p>\n Thomas was indeed a Founding Father of the United States, but he was also the father to at least four children with Sally Hemings, one of his enslaved women. Bradley\u2019s fascinating historical fiction gets a sensitive, enthralling read from the ever-versatile Ojo.<\/p>\n \u201cNate Foster\u201d series<\/strong><\/a> by Tim Federle, read by Tim Federle<\/p>\n Once they start, listeners will want to keep adding the miles to finish this winning series about irrepressible Nate Foster as he makes his Broadway dreams come true, written and oh-so-irresistibly narrated by former child-star-now-bestselling-author Federle.<\/p>\n The Night Diary<\/strong><\/a> by Veera Hiranandani, read by Priya Ayyar<\/p>\n In her first-ever diary, 12-year-old Nisha records her family\u2019s perilous journey from Pakistan to India during the 1947 Partition. Ayyar proves to be an ideal narrator, actualizing Nisha\u2019s evolution from reluctant and reticent to bold and brave. The addition of Hiranandani\u2019s reading of her author\u2019s note \u2013 in which she reveals her father\u2019s family\u2019s 1947 exodus along Nisha\u2019s family\u2019s route from Mirpur Khas to Jodhpur \u2013 is especially gratifying.<\/p>\n Refugee<\/strong><\/a> by Alan Gratz, read by Michael Goldstrom, Kyla Garcia, Assaf Cohen<\/p>\n Gratz gets personal with desensitizing statistics, policies, and politics by giving names, families, and histories to three tweens fleeing three countries during three time periods. Goldtrom is Josef who escapes Nazi Germany; Garcia is Isabel who flees from Cuba; Cohen is Mahmood who runs from Syria. The superb tri-part narration intensifies Gratz\u2019s already resonating stories.<\/p>\n \u201cTrack\u201d series<\/strong><\/a> by Jason Reynolds, read by Guy Lockard (Ghost, Sunny, Lu<\/em>) and Heather Alicia Simms (Patina<\/em>)<\/p>\n Meet the Defenders track team: each of the middle-schoolers have their own challenges, but together \u2013 led by no-nonsense, always-nurturing Coach \u2013 they\u2019ll all turn out to be the champions they need to be. Lockard, Reynolds\u2019 childhood friend and anointed collaborator, exuberantly voices three quarters of the tetralogy; Heather Alicia Simms energetically takes on Patty in\u00a0Patina<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Underland Chronicles\u201d<\/strong> by Suzanne Collins, read by Paul Boehmer<\/p>\n Before\u00a0Hunger<\/em>\u00a0Games<\/em>\u00a0made her household name, Collins created NYC\u2019s \u201cUnderland,\u201d into which Gregor (the Overlander) must venture to save his missing father \u2013 and maybe the whole world. An epic adventure series remarkably read in full by Boehmer, whose adorable rendition of two-year-old Boots, Gregor\u2019s younger sister, still gets talked about by my now-adult children.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n YOUNG ADULT<\/strong><\/p>\n The Astonishing Color of After<\/strong><\/a> by Emily X.R. Pan, read by Stephanie Hsu<\/p>\n Assisted by a huge red bird, mysterious strangers, and all the people who love her, 15-year-old Leigh begins the aching journey back to life and laughter from the black hole of her mother\u2019s suicide and even finds first love. Hsu reads with youthful rawness, embodying the broad spectrum of Leigh\u2019s experiences across realities, oceans, cultures, family histories.<\/p>\n Blood Water Paint<\/strong><\/a> by Joy McCullough, read by Xe Sands \u201cDumplin\u2019<\/strong><\/a>” series by Julie Murphy, read by Eileen Stevens (Dumplin\u2019<\/em>) and Erin Mallon and Kyla Garcia (Puddin\u2019<\/em>)<\/p>\n Before the Jennifer Aniston-starring celluloid adaptation, Dumplin\u2019<\/em> was a guffaw-inducing book, starring self-proclaimed \u201ccashier, Dolly Parton enthusiast, and resident fat girl\u201d Willowdean Dickson who decides to enter the local beauty contest \u2013 run by her former Miss Teen Blue Bonnet mother. Multifaceted Stevens gives Willowdean prodigious range \u2013 sweet and snarky, fearless and funny, determined and doleful, too. Murphy\u2019s teen-girls-overcoming-societal-expectations-because-of-their-size series continues with Puddin\u2019<\/em>, featuring Willowdean\u2019s friend, \u201cfat camp\u201d-survivor Millie and her unlikely relationship with popular pretty girl Callie. Mallon becomes Millie, Garcia assumes Callie, as the frenemies become so much more.<\/p>\n Fangirl<\/a><\/strong> by Rainbow Rowell, read by Rebecca Lowman, Maxwell Caulfield<\/p>\n A giddy-inducing delight about college freshman Cath\u2019s growing up, growing apart (from her twin), growing in love (for the first time), featuring Lowman who crisply, predominantly voices the novel, with fan-fiction interludes elegantly recited in posh British by Caulfield. Elements of gleeful satisfaction include a unique use of pop culture as aphrodisiac, the awkward innocence of late teenage angst, family drama without a zombie or werewolf in sight (although beware the hidden vampire, ahem).<\/p>\n The Poet X<\/strong><\/a> by Elizabeth Acevedo, read by the author<\/p>\n That Acevedo narrates her debut novel-in-verse is a sublime gift. She\u2019s undoubtedly the ideal aural arbiter of her dazzling coming-of-age tale about a Harlem teen whose generational, cultural, religious, and emotional conflicts coalesce to teach her \u201cto believe in the power of [her] own words.\u201d Going audio has the added benefit of Acevedo\u2019s additional explanatory track about the novel\u2019s final contrapuntal poem.<\/p>\n Sadie<\/strong><\/a> by Courtney Summers, read by Rebecca Soler, Fred Berman, Dan Bittner, Gabra Zackman, with a full cast<\/p>\n A stupendous, fully-realized production \u2013 including podcasts with ads \u2013 about a murdered girl, the sister determined to track down her killer, and the journalist desperate to figure out what happened to them both. A riveting murder mystery, though maybe best\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0listened to at night.<\/p>\n A Very Large Expanse of Sea<\/strong><\/a> by Tahereh Mafi, read by Priya Ayyar<\/p>\n Bestselling fantasy YA author Mafi roots her latest in familiar reality in this can\u2019t-turn-away timely story about teens falling in love despite intolerant peer pressure, difficult family situations, and vast cultural divides. This post-9\/11, coming-of-age story of Persian American teen Shirin should be an especially effective catalyst for engaging important family conversations.<\/p>\n When Dimple Met Rishi<\/strong> by Sandhya Menon, read by Sneha Mathan, Vikas Adam<\/p>\n With their marriage apparently already arranged, Dimple is all-but-guaranteed to shun Rishi, her intended \u2026 we\u2019re talking a set-up in a pre-college prestigious science summer program in 21st-century northern California, after all. Mathan and Adam take spirited turns voicing this often LOL teen love story of opposites attracting.<\/p>\n Published<\/strong>: “Have Audiobooks, Will Travel,” School Library Journal,<\/em> March 12, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/03\/Have-Audiobooks^J-Will-Travel-SLJ-2-800x266.jpg\")
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\nCombining both free verse and prose, McCullough\u2019s revelatory historical fiction debut is enhanced by Sands\u2019 perceptive reading of this portrait-of-an-artist-as-a-young-woman which introduces female painter Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the Renaissance\u2019s most accomplished painters, whose career was throttled by patriarchal violence. And yet she persevered.<\/p>\n