Audio(book)phile?

Are you an Audiobook junky?  It’s okay, a library forum is a safe place to admit it.  In case you’re running out of library audiobooks be sure to check out the electronic offerings available through 2 downloadable audiobook services, Netlibrary and ListenAlaska.   Check out Audiobooker, a new blog supported by the American Library Association’s Booklist magazine.  Blogger, “Mary Burkey, a teacher, librarian, and audiobook addict, writes about listening, learning, and the joy of headsets.”  Free audiobook downloads, behind the scenes video clips of audiobook production and more.  

The Stinky Princess

During his visit to Juneau, master storyteller, Bruce Coville got together with the Floyd Dryden Eagles Drama Club to produce a full-cast audio version of Coville’s hilarious short story, “The Stinky Princess”. Take a listen, download it if you like at JPL Podcasts.

In The Stacks: Bruce Coville coming to JPL

Author Alert! Popular kids author and audiobook producer Bruce Coville will be visiting Juneau April 4th–  last time he was here, he played to a packed house! Reacquaint yourself with his spooky, funny, and classic stories, or remind yourself that you’re never too old to be read a story with Coville’s audiobook company, Full Cast Audio and its wide range of tales.

Here are a few new titles to whet your appetites.

If you like scary stories, take a look at, Oddest of All,  a collection of short but eerie stories for chapter book readers. Coville starts by introducing the Lyrans, an alien race which visits a future Earth much worse off than we are so far, giving everyone over the age of nine a vote for the course of humanity’s future. Not scary, you say? How about the story of a boy whose Halloween mask molds itself to his face – in fact, becomes his face? But there’s more… just keep reading!

Or do you prefer adventure stories? Try the latest in the Unicorn Chronicles series, Dark Whispers,  in which Cara Hunter’s life gets more complicated. Having left Earth for the land of the unicorns, called Luster, in Into the Land of the Unicorns, and then found her way back home in Song of the Wanderer,  Cara is a seasoned traveler. In this third book, she’s hoping to unravel the mystery of an ancient war between the unicorns and another race. Entertwined with her story is that of her father, who’s on a quest of his own in Luster.

Try a classic or two, rewritten with Coville’s inimitable skill at highlighting the best parts of a story while keeping the rhythm and flavor of the original. Pick up the picture book, Hans Brinker and meet a boy with a caring heart, quick mind, and loving family, and, incidentally, fast feet.

Or try one of Coville’s Shakespeare adaptations – the tragedy of Hamlet, perhaps, with its many moody, shadowed illustrations and lovely language; or, the wacky comedy of Twelfth Night with its mistaken identities, romance, swordplay, and a great practical joke. Reading these is almost as good as seeing Shakespeare performed.

Those who like listening to audiobooks will find Full Cast Audio productions enchanting, from their outstanding cast of readers to their choices of family-friendly choices (to paraphrase Coville: intelligent adults and intelligent children can enjoy listening together without embarrassment). Try Skybreaker, by Kenneth Oppel, a 2009 Audie Award finalist, which follows the adventures of Matt Cruse (from Airborn). Now a student pilot at a prestigious flight academy, Matt is part of the crew that spots a legendary lost airship far above them during a storm. When the rest of the crew is struck with altitude sickness Matt is the only one left who knows the coordinates of the ghost ship, and is offered a spot on a treasure-hunting airship. After fighting off pirates and testing the limits of their experimental ship, the treasure-hunters are rewarded with the sight of the ghost-ship – bearing a different treasure than they’d ever imagined.

For a twisted fairy-tale, listen to Gail Carson Levine’s, Fairest, another Audie finalist, about an ugly girl with a beautiful singing voice whose talents for throwing her voice and imitating others get her noticed by the queen. First thrilled to be part of the court, then horrified to find that the queen plans to use her to manipulate others in unscrupulous ways, Aza is trapped in the deal she made by her love for her family. How she finds her way out of her snare and This is truly a remarkable book to listen to – not only is the story wonderful, but Coville has set the book’s lyrics to music composed just for this audiobook, enhancing the feeling of really being in Aza’s world.

Join us this Saturday at 7 pm at the Downtown Library for dramatic historical presentations in honor of Seward’s Day by Haines storyteller John Venables. (And also in honor of Seward’s Day, the Downtown and Douglas libraries will be closed on Monday, March 30th. The Mendenhall Valley Library will be open regular hours.) There’s lots more information about all these programs on our website, www.juneau.org/library! Check us out!

Pirates

Pirates! by Celia Rees (unabridged audio book)

This is the time of wooden sailing ships mastered by wind and wave.
Here an ocean highway for transporting all manor of goods, with weeks or months of sea in-between stops, this was also a hunting ground for pirates.

Ever feel like escaping the world?  Just get away from your life as you know it?  Then try not to look back, except to watch for what or who may follow you.  This story is read by: Jennifer Wiltsie,  her voice suits the main character Nancy, who was born in a time when her world held no choice but to do what was expected of a girl her age.  

The author blends a tale with maritime history and open ocean pirating of merchant vessels of goods, and those that involved the slave trade.   I was intrigued by how a person could chose to be a pirate, if they did choose.  The story is fiction, but how often I used to think about the world of old, and what my life would have been like, had I been there.   From my history classes in school, there was never anything written about girls or women sailors aboard sailing ships, or as pirates.   The case was more a reality of girls and women being kidnapped, for ravish or ransom in the abundant slave trade of the times.   

I enjoyed this tale because I could relate how it feels to want to be free from the confines that gender and the yoke of responsibility sometimes imposes on the innocent young lives.   Nancy and Minerva the main characters of the story were able to break those confines by a simple change of clothes, and becoming what no-one expected a girl to become, a pirate.   They could roam the seas, casting for adventure and treasure.   They could be free to dream of any type of life they chose, not one that they were bound to by tradition, marrige or slavery.  

 I liked and lamented, over the realistic quality in the way some of the characters had to make decisions about which direction they would lead their life.  I didn’t want the story to end. 

Reviewed by: Deb Munsell