“Lytton’s tender tale will tug at the heartstrings. And romance fans will hang on the teens’ poetry, tears, texts, and…insights about life.” —Booklist
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- Silence
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Read by Rebecca Gibel and Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 1/12/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Stella was born to sing. Someday Broadway. But everything changes when a tragic accident renders her deaf; she cannot hear, much less sing. Trapped in a strange new world of total silence, she must face not only the loss of her friends, her hopes, and her voice but also the loss of her identity and her life’s purpose. Who is she if she’s not a singer?
Hayden is a quiet loner, an outcast, and the only person Stella can communicate with; his profound stutter makes him speak so slowly, she is able to easily read his lips. As they find new ways to communicate despite their disabilities, their friendship grows into an unexpected—but welcome—romance. But is it a romance that can last if Stella regains her hearing and resumes her former life?
Alternating between Stella’s and Hayden’s points of view, Silence is a lyrical story of self-discovery, romance, and resilience, of two souls learning how to find their voices and break through the silence.
- Silence
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Read by Rebecca Gibel and Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 1/12/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Swagger
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By Carl Deuker
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 12/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
High school senior point guard Jonas Dolan is on the fast track to a basketball career until an unthinkable choice puts his future on the line.
Levi was simple, like a child. It was the best thing about him, and it was the worst, too.
When high school senior Jonas moves to Seattle, he is glad to meet Levi, a nice, soft-spoken guy and fellow basketball player. Suspense builds like a slow drumbeat as readers start to smell a rat in Ryan Hartwell, a charismatic basketball coach and sexual predator. When Levi reluctantly tells Jonas that Hartwell abused him, Jonas has to decide whether he should risk his future career to report the coach.
Pitch-perfect basketball plays, well-developed characters, and fine storytelling make this heartbreaking psychological sports novel a slam dunk.
- Swagger
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By Carl Deuker
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 12/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Lives of the Scientists
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 7/09/13
Formats: Digital Audy
Scientists have a reputation for being focused on their work—and maybe even dull. But take another look. Did you know that it's believed Galileo was scolded by the Roman Inquisition for sassing his mom? That Isaac Newton loved to examine soap bubbles? That Albert Einstein loved to collect joke books, and that geneticist Barbara McClintock wore a Groucho Marx disguise in public? With juicy tidbits about everything from favorite foods to first loves, the subjects of Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt's Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought) are revealed as creative, bold, sometimes eccentric—and anything but dull.
- Lives of the Scientists
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 7/09/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Saturnalia
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 6/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
It is December 1681, and the words of Mr. Baggot, the tithingman, terrify young William. William is living a strange double life. By day he is a printer's apprentice living in a white man's house. By night, he is Weetasket of the Narraganset tribe who must risk Baggot's wrath to search for his lost brother. Then comes the winter celebration of the Saturnalia—the ancient Roman holiday on which masters and slaves trade roles. Will William's secrets be revealed? And what dark deeds of others will be brought to light on this fateful night?
- Saturnalia
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 6/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Instant Winner
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By Gary Soto
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 6/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
An original novella from award-winning children's author and poet Gary Soto
Jason Rodriguez is a twelve-year-old who never had much luck—until he wins $3,700 in the lottery and becomes an Instant Winner! Jason can't believe he's won the lottery and decides he will use the money to get his crazy Uncle Mike out of jail. That's where the real adventure begins.
- Instant Winner
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By Gary Soto
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 6/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Planet out of the Past
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 3/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
Char, Weddy, and Nuell are excited over their discovery on the strange planet Pleisto but also terrified, for the leader of their expedition, Professor Joher, has disappeared. Nuell and Weddy, Joher' children, are concerned for his safety, while Char, his research assistant, feels not only worried but responsible for all of them. He realizes that these prehistoric people may have carried off the professor—and may even have killed him. The three set out to find the professor, and their search leads them through a frightening world, where they must fight for their lives every day, against mastodons and jaguars as well as Pleisto's prehistoric inhabitants. They befriend a wounded hunter, a man who is like their own ancestors from millions of years earlier, and hope that he will lead them to the professor. As their journey progresses, Char is thrilled to have the chance to study prehistoric humans so closely, but he is disturbed by the violence of everyday life on Pleisto, by its uncomfortable similarity to life on Earth, and by his own feelings of competition and aggression. In an exciting climax, he learns about human courage, love, generosity, and cooperation.
- Planet out of the Past
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 3/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Winchesters
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
Fourteen-year-old Chris Winchester is torn between two worlds. By birth, he's part of the indomitable Winchester clan, owners of the enormous electronics factory that employs nearly everyone in town. Yet Chris's father gave up his stake in the business to work for the Peace Corp. When he died, Chris, his mother, and his twin sisters moved into a tiny gatehouse on the Winchester estate—poor relations living on family goodwill. While his cousin Ernest is groomed to take over the family fortune, Chris attends public school and makes friends with the kids in town. He can't understand why a crisis at his uncle's factory makes people suddenly hate him, but a wage cut and a threatened strike have everyone's nerves on edge.
In the eyes of the townspeople, Chris is guilty by association, for he bears the Winchester name. When things turn ugly, Chris discovers that his family can get very tough. Power is like a muscle, his uncle explains, and it must be flexed to keep it strong. Chris senses that power can be used to destroy, as well. In spite of himself, Chris is drawn into the inner circle of the Winchester clan. Suddenly he realizes that part of the Winchester wealth might be his one day. Being rich sounds exciting, but his uncle's protection is not without its price, and Chris's conscience is uneasy. As he journeys toward adulthood he is faced with some difficult questions: Where does he belong, and whose side is he on?
- The Winchesters
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Corn Raid
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
Life for indentured servants in pioneer Virginia is hard. It is doubly hard for Richard Ayre, a London orphan who had been scooped off the streets as a child and sent to the Jamestown Colony. But a chance encounter with an Indian boy his own age gives him a friend, the first real friend he has had in years—until his master's plan to raid an Indian village for corn turns Richard's world upside down. Soon their friendship and loyalties will be put to the test.
- The Corn Raid
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Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 2/01/13
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Winter Hero
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By James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 12/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
Justin Conkey was too young to fight in the Revolution of 1776, but now it is 1787 and he is fourteen. Justin is ready to fight, even if he has only his father's old sword to protect him. But once on the battlefield, war is not what he expected. It is dangerous and frightening and nothing makes sense. Throughout a particularly bitter winter the young man is desperate to prove that he too can be a hero—not realizing that many times heroes turn out to be just ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, who do what comes naturally to save others regardless of risk to themselves. Insisting on joining General Daniel Shays' group of Regulators, he lies about his age and marches with the group throughout New England. But war puts friendships and political convictions to the test.
- The Winter Hero
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By James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 12/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Bloody Country
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By James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 12/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
Fifteen-year-old Ben Buck and his family spent four years clearing the wilderness to build a new home in Pennsylvania. They fought the Indians and the British, and they made sacrifices most people wouldn't have been strong enough to make, all so they could be independent and free. Now someone's trying to take everything away from them—their land, their home, even Ben's best friend, Joe. But the Bucks won't give up without a fight, and Ben knows his family will have to win a war to stay free. But what he doesn't know is that wars sometimes last a very long time. And even if you win in the end, you can lose almost everything along the way.
- The Bloody Country
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By James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 12/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Magician’s Apprentice
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By Kate Banks
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 8/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
Baz has always dreamed about leaving his dusty little town. So when a stranger comes to his family's home and asks him to be a weaver's apprentice, Baz is eager to start his journey.
He and the stranger travel for several sunrises and sunsets until they reach the land of Kallah, where Baz starts his apprenticeship—and soon learns that his master is very cruel. Baz is disheartened, and when the master trades Baz to a magician for a sword, Baz expects no better from his new owner.
But as Baz travels further into the depths of the desert with this kind-hearted and wise magician, he learns to reexamine his beliefs about people, the world, and himself, discovering that everything is connected in a continuous journey toward destiny and that no person or thing can ever really be owned.
- The Magician’s Apprentice
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By Kate Banks
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 8/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Leaving Protection
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By Will Hobbs
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 4/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
Raised in the island world of southeast Alaska, sixteen-year-old Robbie Daniels jumps at the chance to work as a deckhand on a salmon troller captained by legendary fisherman Tor Torsen. Catching king salmon from dawn till dusk, Robbie is living his dream—until he discovers his mysterious captain's dark secret. Tor is illegally searching the coastline for historic metal plaques buried by early Russian explorers. When Robbie learns the value of these hidden treasures, he fears he may know too much to survive. Tor's wrath and a violent storm at sea put Robbie's courage and wits to the ultimate test.
- Leaving Protection
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By Will Hobbs
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 4/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
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- No Promises in the Wind
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By Irene Hunt
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 1/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
From the Newbery Award-winning author of Across Five Aprils and Up a Road Slowly comes a tale of a brave young man's struggle to find his own strength during the Great Depression.
In 1932, American's dreams were simple: a job, food to eat, a place to sleep, and shoes without holes. But for millions of people these simple needs were nothing more than dreams. When he was just fifteen years old, Josh had to make his own way through a country of angry and frightened people. This is the story of his struggle to find a life for himself during those turbulent times.
No Promises in the Wind was awarded the 1971 Charles W. Follett Award.
- No Promises in the Wind
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By Irene Hunt
Read by Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 1/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Uninnocent
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Read by Charlie Thurston, Joe Barrett, and Rachael Warren
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Release Date: 1/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
Bradford Morrow's stories have garnered him awards such as the O. Henry and Pushcart prizes and have given him a devoted following. Now gathered here for the first time is a collection of his finest gothic tales.
A young man whose childhood hobby of collecting sea shells and birds' nests takes a sinister turn when he becomes obsessed with acquiring his brother's girlfriend, in "The Hoarder," which was selected as one of the Best American Noir Stories of the Century.
An archeologist summoned to attend his beloved sister's funeral is astonished to discover it is not she who has died, but someone much closer to him, in "Gardener of Heart."
A blind motivational speaker has a crisis of faith when he suddenly regains his sight, only to discover life was better lived in the dark, in "Amazing Grace."
- The Uninnocent
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Read by Charlie Thurston, Joe Barrett, and Rachael Warren
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Release Date: 1/01/12
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Emerald City
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Read by Madeleine Lambert, Richard Waterhouse, and Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 1/01/96
Formats: Digital Audy
These eleven masterful stories—the first collection from acclaimed author Jennifer Egan—deal with loneliness and longing, regret and desire. Egan’s characters—models and housewives, bankers and schoolgirls—are united by their search for something outside their own realm of experience. They set out from locations as exotic as China and Bora Bora, as cosmopolitan as downtown Manhattan, or as familiar as suburban Illinois to seek their own transformations.
Elegant and poignant, the stories in Emerald City are seamless evocations of self-discovery.
- Emerald City
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Read by Madeleine Lambert, Richard Waterhouse, and Charlie Thurston
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Release Date: 1/01/96
Formats: Digital Audy