How to stop the back-seat whines
Audio books will put you on the road to peace with the kids, writes Karen MacPherson
by Christopher Paul Curtis: Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton masterfully spotlights the unique mixture of humour and drama in Curtis’s unforgettable Newbery Honorwinning historical novel about a family caught up in a key civil rights event.
Other good choices are: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, who reads his hilarious Newbery Medalwinning half-fictional memoir of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s; Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz, narrated by Trini Alvarado, about a girl whose world is shaken when her family migrates from Mexico to California; the Newbery Medal-winning The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, who deftly narrates his darkly humorous twist on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, a fantasy about a young girl’s courageous quest to improve her family’s fortunes, narrated by Janet Song.
Teen
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: narrated by Alexie, this raw, riveting and often humorous audio book tells the story of Junior, a Spokane Indian teen, who is pulled between two worlds as he leaves the reservation for a better education.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. Narrators MacLeod Andrews and Nick Podehl each give voice to a young man named Will Grayson – two vastly different characters who are brought together in their search for love and acceptance.
Other good choices include: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett and narrated by Stephen Fry, who adeptly speaks the comical brogue of tiny blue men in kilts; Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly in which narrators Emily Janice Card and Emma Bering elegantly bridge the story’s two worlds – current-day Brooklyn and 18th-century France; and In the Belly of the Bloodhound and Curse of the Blue Tattoo in which author LA Meyer describes the thrilling adventures of a plucky young woman named Jacky Faber. – The Washington Post