Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Growing Up & Facts of Life

Eager to become a reporter, Penny Parker grabs the chance to cover a society wedding. Her father, the editor of the Riverview Star, explains that the only access to the Kippenberg estate is via a rickety bridge and that Mr. Kippenberg, who is on the run for tax evasion, just might show up at his daughter's wedding. Penny smells a scoop! When the groom receives a mysterious note and disappears moments before the ceremony, Penny is on the trail. The mystery deepens as the intrepid teenager gathers clues while encountering a belligerent gardener, unsavory boatmen, and an alligator.

Originally published in 1922, this classic children’s story tells the tale of a plush toy rabbit who was loved by a boy. Toys who are deeply and truly loved can become real. Listen and you will discover why one rabbit’s journey has filled hearts and captivated imaginations for 100 years. This story, told by narrator April Doty, will be played again and again at bedtime.

When Bev and Felix arrive at the King farm in Prince Edward Island, they have no idea of the adventures and memories in store for them. Is old Peg Bowen really a witch? What secrets does the neighbor keep hidden in his spare room? What if tomorrow is the end of the world? And what is in the old blue chest? Along with their cousins, they learn the value of work and play, the wisdom of proverbs, how to struggle with temptations and face their fears.

Ken Holt is the son of a world-famous foreign correspondent named Richard Holt. Holt travels the world and is home infrequently. Ken's mother is no longer alive and Ken lives with the Allen family. One of his closest friends is Sandy Allen. Sandy and Ken both at the Brentwood Advance, a local newspaper. Things start off innocently enough as Ken's father comes to stay with the Allen's for the Christmas holiday. Naturally he brings gifts. For Mom Allen, he has brought an ornate iron box. The box is old but apparently, not very valuable.

From the beloved author of Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery - Emily of New Moon (published in 1923) takes us on a journey of loss, friendship, bullying, family dynamics, acceptance, and self-discovery with Emily Byrd Starr, an orphan who must move in with her reluctant Aunt Elizabeth, her loving Aunt Laura, and her jovial and friendly Cousin Jimmy at New Moon on Prince Edward Island.

Young Cedric lives with his widowed mother in New York. His late father was a British earl who had been disowned by his father for marrying an American. As all of the earl of Dorincourt's sons have now died, he begrudgingly looks to Cedric as his sole heir. While the earl soon comes to love the endearing little Cedric, conflict arises when a strange woman appears on the scene and insists that her son is the true heir.

Now a college student, Anne Shirley pursues her studies in Kingsport while finding herself pursued romantically. In between, she navigates the life changes her friends and family back in Avonlea are undertaking, while navigating her own sense of home, and all with the indomitable spirit that has made Anne a beloved classic character.

Read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, this short story written in 1850 by Charles Dickens is beautiful in its simplicity. A boy grows to a man with the memory of him and his now dead sister gazing upon the evening star, imagining it as a gate to heaven.

Wry, dry, and arch, this production of Lewis Carroll's classic tale of a fall through a rabbit hole to a fantasy world is otherwise just as familiar as ever. After a century and a half, Alice's adventure in Wonderland, one of the finest examples of literary nonsense, continues to attract listeners.

On an ordinary summer's afternoon, Alice tumbles down a rabbit hole, and an extraordinary adventure begins. In a strange world filled with even stranger characters, she meets a waistcoated, ever-late rabbit, joins a Mad Hatter's tea party, finds herself growing and shrinking with each thing she eats and drinks, converses with a hookah-smoking caterpillar and a disappearing Cheshire cat, plays croquet with the Queen of Hearts, and almost loses her head.

On her way to a ranch outside San Francisco, Dorothy is caught in an earthquake that sends her; her escort, Zeb; and her kitten, Eureka, to a familiar land and familiar faces. But when Eureka is accused of eating Princess Ozma's pet piglet, she stands trial and risks death.

John the Blacksmith doesn't know what is at the bottom of the stairs leading down from the dungeon. With any luck, he'll never find out. Then one day he has to go into the dungeon to fetch more coal and comes face to face with the dragon that has risen from the depths. It looks like today John's luck may have run out. Or is it just beginning?

Elizabeth Ann is being carefully brought up by her Aunt Frances. Aunt Frances shares in all Elizabeth Ann's fears and slights, walks her to and from school each day, and conscientiously follows the most modern theories on child-rearing. She is the original helicopter parent. Not surprisingly, at nine years old Elizabeth Ann is timid and shy, friendless, and completely dependent on her doting aunt. Then an emergency occurs, and the fearful little girl is temporarily sent to other relatives who live on a farm in Vermont.

A classic short story for children of all ages. Meet Jocko the Monkey, Mouser the cat, and Touser the dog as they try to help the cook catch the nimble Gingerbread Man. More than just a simple rhyme this is a full story that has been enjoyed for decades. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert send for an orphan boy to help around the farm, they get chatty, imaginative Anne Shirley instead. But Anne's warmth and determination soon brighten life in the town of Avonlea.

This classic story by Margery Williams, published in 1922, imparts the timeless message that toys need not be expensive or modern to be appreciated and loved. Through giving and receiving love, even a commonplace stuffed animal can become real in the eyes of a child, and millions of them do every day. Love is the magic ingredient of course, and it works on all of us.

Immediately following the success of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott sat down to write An-Old Fashioned Girl, expanding on the subject of rich versus poor that she explored in her first novel. It’s a story of a country mouse and a city mouse: 14-year-old Polly Milton travels to Boston for a stay with her friend Fanny Shaw. The wealthy Shaws’ way of life is foreign to Polly who tries to adapt but is quickly labeled “old-fashioned”. Fanny and her friends dress and behave as their elders do, flirting with boys and gossiping.

Follow young Mary's journey from India to the mysterious grand house in Yorkshire, England. Packed with interesting characters, positive thinking, and bursting with nature, The Secret Garden continues to enthrall and educate children and adults alike. Subtle sound effects, along with evenly paced reading, makes this adaptation a delight to listen to.

Tom Swift and His Motorcycle is Volume 2 of the original Tom Swift series. In this book, first published in 1910, our hero, the young inventor Tom Swift, buys a motorboat at auction that he "soups up", making it one of the fastest boats on Lake Charlupa. Meanwhile, the Happy Harry Gang has some sort of interest in the motorboat, with shady characters lurking about the Swift laboratories and the boat.

Lewis Carroll's delightful sequel to Alice in Wonderland finds seven-year-old Alice off on another exciting adventure into Looking-Glass World. On her journey, she meets life-size chess pieces, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and a host of fairy-tale creatures.