Showing results by narrator "Kevin Free" in All Categories

It's a busy day as everyone gets ready for a special birthday celebration. Animal friends scurry about, preparing decorations and more for the fun festivities. Have fun at the party together with The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his 12-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first.

Jodi Angel's new collection You Only Get Letters from Jail comes at listeners "with a voice dripping with sweat and Schlitz” ( Esquire magazine). These moving and beautifully written stories follow young men caught in the confusing space between boyhood and adulthood, in situations that nobody can possibly prepare you for....

On 6th June 1944, the Allied invasion began. For hours, wave after wave of soldiers, sailors, and airmen crossed the channel and stormed the Normandy coast, fighting to gain a foothold in Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. It was the largest combined air and seaborne invasion ever, involving over 150,000 Allied troops on the ground, and its eventual success became a critical turning point in the war, spelling the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.

In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a social circle of lovers and friends navigate tangled webs of connection as they try to figure out what they want, and who they are. At the centre of the group are three dancers: Ivan, tall and stoic, who is leaving ballet for a career in finance; Fatima, whose work ethic earns her both admiration and enmity; and Noah, who 'didn't seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.'

As diverse a lot as they may be, the people who tell their stories in this book share one thing in common. Each is committed to fighting inequality and injustice. Each, too, can pinpoint a moment when they were moved to action, when it became impossible to sit on the sidelines and just watch. In The Moment, New York Times best-selling author Steve Fiffer presents an oral history from today's social justice activists—many of them still under 30—that is pitch perfect for these dissonant times.

Rufus may have successfully sent the feylings home to the Green World, but he still has one pesky feyling under his wing: Nettle, his sometimes enemy, now mentor. Nettle is in charge of helping Rufus and his cousin Abigail protect Feylawn, their grandfather’s magical and mysterious homestead. But this difficult task becomes even more dangerous when a leopard appears in the woods without warning; strange, waterlogged women arrive to warn of impending doom; and a goblin begins digging his way back to Earth, hungry for revenge.

One of Silicon Valley's top leadership trainers distills his proven framework that has empowered teams at the world's most innovative companies - from Google and Facebook to Cisco Systems and biotech giant Genentech/Roche - to do the best work of their lives. Richard Lee has worked with thousands of ambitious leaders and their teams, and has found that they all share the same frustration. Whether it's because of communication breakdowns or systemic complexity, people at every level of an organization feel like their results fall short of their expectations.

Oh no—naughty puppy Patch has run away! Can YOU help find him? As you search, remember not to disturb the pirate. If you hear a Yo Ho Ho, a cannon's boom, or fierce AHOYS along the way, turn and run from all that noise! Sneak over, under, round and through the book, just remember … don't disturb the PIRATE!

Edison Rooker is determined to gain access to the magical world. Problem is, he doesn’t have magic. But he does have a plan: get a job as apprentice to powerful sorceress Antonia Hex. He also has an illegal Spell Binder device, which he must keep hidden from the Magical Consortium, at all costs. With his new job, Edison is given a new name – Rook – which he happily accepts. He’s less happy about working alongside Sun, the grumpy but annoyingly cute apprentice to Antonia’s big rival.

Arek didn’t think about what would happen after he fulfilled the prophecy. He’s officially King of Ere, but only Arek and his mage, the devastatingly handsome Matt, know that the role comes with a catch: marry by your eighteenth birthday—or die. Arek’s got three months to find his One True Love and save his own life. But things go painfully and hilariously wrong...until he discovers that love might have been right in front of him all along.

As the city grinds to a halt, twelve teens band together to help a friend pull off the most epic apology of her life. But will they be able to make it happen, in spite of the storm? No one is prepared for this whiteout. But then, we can’t always prepare for the magical moments that change everything.

Spend a day in the snow with The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Song of the Shank is a novel loosely based on the life of Thomas Greene Wiggins, a 19th-century African American piano virtuoso and composer who performed under the stage name Blind Tom. Told through the eyes and minds of people who try to manipulate or use Tom for one reason or another, the novel is an imaginative meditation on issues of blindness, race, and the role and importance of art and critical thinking in our world today.

Elizabeth Bluemle garnered high praise for her hilarious debut picture book My Father the Dog. Filled with the same brand of fun and silliness, How Do You Wokka-Wokka? will have kids up and moving around in no time - if they aren't doubled-over with laughter. Everyone Wokka-Wokkas in their own unique way - the key is to let your body go crazy and have fun!

David Anthony Durham has won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Fiction Award and a Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award. Walk Through Darkness is the story of a fugitive slave in search of his pregnant wife, and the lethal hunter who is tracking him. As these two quests intertwine, they form a fascinating mosaic of the Civil War era.

The Chosen: a prophecy older than dirt and more dangerous than death. Even as they perfected steam-powered gadgetry and rounded up varmints from Hell, the Jackson brothers didn't believe in it. But when the chips are down, three brothers named for weapons aren't going out without a fight…A walk on the wild side…Attorney by day, demon-hunter by night, Remington Jackson is used to being on the sunny side of the law, even in the Wild West. But it's showdown time, and Remy and his brothers are getting desperate.

Winn Jackson isn't interested in hunting nightmares across the Wild West - even if it's the family business. Unlike his rakehell brothers, Winn believes in rules. As sheriff of Bodie, California, he only shoots actual law breakers. That's what he's doing when he rescues the Contessa Drossenburg, Alexandra Porter, a lady with all the elegance of the Old World - grace, beauty, and class. And then he sees her fangs.

Thomas Laidlaw returns home from Vietnam with nothing much in mind but to tend his acreage, live apart, and get lost in the roots music he grew up with. Laidlaw’s childhood friend Rodney Redmon is doubly burdened: Not only is he scarred from the war, he is also a black man living in a prejudiced area of Tennessee. Redmon’s homecoming from the war included time in jail - the result of his being framed for real estate fraud by racist forces within the local establishment. Once released, he and Laidlaw rekindle their friendship and both veterans try to put the war behind them.

In 1911, three men were in the final round of the famed Pendleton Round-Up. One was white, one was Indian, and one was black. When the judges declared the white man the winner, the audience was outraged. They named black cowboy George Fletcher the "people's champion" and took up a collection, ultimately giving Fletcher far more than the value of the prize that went to the official winner. Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson tells the story of Fletcher's triumph with a western flair that will delight kids - and adults - who love true stories, unlikely heroes, and cowboy tales.