Children's Books discussion

I'm looking for great children's and YA audiobook suggestions! Anyone have a favorite book, narrator, etc? Thank you!

We enjoyed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because Patrick Fraley did such a terrific job of reading all the dialect that the flavor of each person, race, status and region was distinct as Twain intended, but we could still understand it all (for some, reading the text is an awful lot like reading a different language).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

We also enjoyed The Last Dragon but I can't seem to find the edition we listened to. Good story, good narrator.

We had to stop listening to Evil Genius because the narration was so awkward.

There's a short thread in the group Great Middle Grade Reads that you might want to check out, too.

I love the narration for Bucking the Sarge. As a book, it would probably not have been a favorite of mine, but the narration really made it come alive for me.

Thanks for the suggestions!

We really enjoyed Kate Winslet's rendition of Matilda this summer. I've never been so enamored with a Roald Dahl book as I was with this one and I credit it partly to Winslet. We have a lot of Roald Dahl in audiobook version ...

The Little House on the Prairie books have also been wonderful with Cherry Jones, and I mostly liked Jim Dale's narration of the Harry Potter books (but he does unfortunately give very annoying voices to both Hermione and Luna).

I've begun Midnight for Charlie Bone on audiobook and am liking it too, and we've just finished Five Children and It (unfortunately abridged, which I usually try to avoid, so only 2 CDs but my 2nd grader was quite keen on it).

Most of the audiobooks we've tried have been easy to get into. I once however borrowed the audiobook for a novel I'd been dying to read for a long time, and I had to give up on it, the reading was so bad. It was And the Mountains Echoed ...

As I mentioned on another thread here, Elisabeth Sastre reading the Noel Streatfeild books (Ballet Shoes, Theater Shoes, Dancing Shoes) is just perfection. Wish she would do more of those.

I also enjoyed The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, read by Joan Aiken's daughter Lizza.

Not a fan at all of the "cast production" audiobooks. The Moffats and Half-Magic (among others) have been ruined for me by those. I'm not looking for a dramatized radio play; I just want a nice narrator.

lol - agree with Fjóla. I can't stand Dale's Hermione voice whining "Harreeee"... =P

Anne wrote: "lol - agree with Fjóla. I can't stand Dale's Hermione voice whining "Harreeee"... =P"

Yeah, that is so unfair! She is one of the coolest, most level headed characters in the book but he makes her sound whiny and neurotic. And he kind of ruins Luna Lovegood, who comes across pretty well in the movies for instance as a quirky, if slightly spacey, head-in-the-clouds girl. Dale turns her into a pot head sounding zombie, with no possible appeal ...

A few that I have enjoyed: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, the narrator that does Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series is pretty good, and we liked the narration of peter and the star catcher series. I believe Jim Dale did the narrations for the Peter and the Starcatchers series. ...I have been pleased with his narrations but I never listened to Harry Potter, only read it. Honestly, I listen to a lot of books on CD as I have a 35-45 minute commute each way to my school, and I have mostly been pleased. Some are better than others...but most are pretty good. My children and I also listened to The Fairy-Tale Detectives and that entire series on audio book and really enjoyed it (although we read it as a fiction club read here in this group several years ago...that's how I found out about it...and it got mixed reviews.)

While I agree with you, Michael, that I don't want a dramatized radio play...some of the audio versions I have listened to have a few sound effects or a bit of music added in and that can add a nice touch.

Greetings! Has anyone listened to an audio version of the Alice in Wonderland? I'm a children's librarian and I'd like to purchase one for the collection, but there are tons! Anyone have a favorite? Thank you!

Great question; I hope someone has a suggestion!
Meanwhile, I'm going to go ahead and open a new thread for you, since this is so old and ppl might not be reading it.

To answer the original Emily's question, I think Katherine Kellgren is an amazing narrator and her narration of the Jacky Faber ("Bloody Jack") series historical fiction for YA is phenomenal. She's done several other children's and YA as well.

To the recent poster Emily, I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations.