Showing results by narrator "Johnny Heller" in All Categories

The Truth About Death, the title novella of this virtuosic collection, is a masterpiece of sardonic humor that confronts Death head-on and emerges bloody but unbowed. Simon, an undertaker, embalms his own father and faces his own death. Louisa, Simon's mother, makes peace with her husband over his dead body in a cooler in the basement of the funeral home. Simon contemplates the mystery of death over a plate of spaghetti cacio e pepe in Rome with an Italian undertaker.

Jerome Alligator is so excited he can hardly stand it. The students from Swamp School are going on a camping trip this weekend. He plans to fish, swim, and hike for two whole days. Everything would be wonderful if only he didn’t have to share a tent with Buster Wormley. Buster likes to play jokes - like putting ants in someone’s lunch box. At the campground, he seems to be everywhere, playing not-so-funny tricks. Will this turn out to be Jerome’s worst weekend ever? When Jerome comes up with a clever solution to the class bully, the result surprises everyone - even himself.

Every year, people ask Groundhog the same, boring old question. Is spring around the corner? Or are we doomed to more winter? Sure, they care about his shadow, but what about him and his interests? He's had enough! Groundhog packs his bags and sets out for a much-needed vacation. Now the town is holding auditions to find someone to fill his spot. None of the animals seem right for the job, though. Not Elephant, not Ostrich, and most certainly not Puppy.

Crooked politics and twisted passions explode into murder and a terrifying frame-up! A scream of terror shatters the quiet of the big city's swank residential section. When the police arrive at Richard Caldwell's house, they find him drunk and dazed, staring at the beautiful girl who lies dead at his feet. It looks like an out-and-out murder case - but is it? Reporter Sam Terrell thinks it is a frame-up and sets out to get the truth.

Uncle Pancho isn't really anybody’' uncle, but he's everybody's friend. He is also a good storyteller. All the neighborhood children love to hear him talk about growing up in a beautiful place called Mexico. Now Uncle Pancho is about to lose his house. The state wants to tear it down to make room for a new freeway.

When a small pod of killer whales surfaces just offshore of Lumber Landing - a small British Columbia fishing community - it’s more than just the fish who don’t know what to do. The whales’ arrival coincides with a fishing magazine ad offering $100,000 for a killer whale in good condition for an American theme park. Jamie Tidd, a 14-year-old boy, and his father, Perry, thought it would be nearly impossible to capture a whale. However, it’s after they easily trap one on Wilwilli Cove that difficulties arise.

Audie Award-winning narrator Johnny Heller is Huckleberry Finn in this brand-new edition of the classic American story. Huck's understanding of the world around him evolves as he and Jim, a runaway slave, travel the Mississippi River. A coming-of-age journey for both Huck and listeners alike for over 100 years and counting.

Ever since Johnny Carson first popularized the late-night talk show in 1962 with The Tonight Show, the 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. comedy time slot on network television has remained an indelible part of our national culture. More than six popular late-night shows air every night of the week, and with recent major shake-ups in the industry, late-night television has never been more relevant to our public consciousness than it is today.

Dave's carefree life of pranks and stickball in his Lower East Side New York neighborhood ends the day his papa dies. No one wants the 11-year-old rascal, so Dave is shuffled off to the Hebrew Home for Boys, aka the Hell Hole for Brats. There he must contend with a brutal headmaster, bullies, freezing rooms, and institutional slop to eat - all on top of his personal losses. But at least Dave is not alone.

Willful and high-spirited, exerting his independence at every turn, 10-year-old Robert "Robbie" Burns Hewitt plans to live life to the fullest - because the world is going to end at the turn of the century anyway! The year 1900 is fast approaching. Robbie decides that living by The Ten Commandments, which have been drilled into his head by his preacher father, is not meant for him - since he "ain’t got the knack for holiness." On his quest to be his own person, he stirs up trouble daily.

When Jake follows his grandfather Taw to the Hopi reservation where Taw was born, he finds trouble. The Hopi are upset about a Mexican wolf. Since there are no wolves in Arizona, some believe it's a ghost. Others want to kill it because it's hunting their livestock. Jake is sure of one thing: he must help his grandfather save the lobo. It could be the last of its kind.

Eddie "Air" Ball wants to win the Finkle Foods poetry contest for a chance to sink a million-dollar free throw at halftime of the NBA finals. He knows he can make the shot, no problem. He's not so sure he can write a winning poem, though. Luckily, Eddie has the help of his best friend, Annie "Oakley" Stokely. Not only is Annie as good at shooting baskets as Eddie is, she also knows a lot about writing poems.

Best-selling author Berkeley Breathed is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the Bloom County and Opus comics. His unmistakable sense of humor colors every moment of Flawed Dogs. Sam the dachshund is a show dog and Heidy’s best friend, until Heidy’s uncle kicks him out of the house. Befriending other strays, Sam plots his revenge for the Westminster Dog Show.

Award-winning author Sarah Weeks is critically acclaimed for her numerous best-selling books for children of all ages. In Jumping the Scratch, she tells the tale of Jamie Reardon, who has always been told that bad things happen in threes. So when his father leaves, his cat dies, and his Aunt Sapphy is in an accident that makes it impossible for her to create new memories, he figures life has to get better soon. Enter Audrey Krouch, who smells like onions, wears huge glasses without lenses, and claims to have ESP. As peculiar as she is, it is Audrey who helps Jamie turn his life around.

New York Times Notable Book author Charles Yu wrote the best-selling novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. In his stunning, often humorous, collection Sorry Please Thank You, Yu draws on pop culture and science to make incisive observations about society - and offer touching insight into the human condition. In two of Yu’s remarkable stories, he focuses on a big-box-store night-shift employee with girl trouble and a company that outsources grief for profit.

Eleven-year-old David is about to meet his new stepsister, Amanda, who is only one year older than he is. Amanda arrives at their big old house wearing a huge tattered shawl and carrying a sharp-eyed crow in a cage. She is hardly what David expects. Before long, she introduces David to a strange world of witchcraft and the occult. At first, spells and potions are fun. He enjoys the spooky chants and smoky seances. Even his younger brother and sisters join in, making sure their parents suspect nothing.

American Civil Wars takes listeners beyond the battlefields and sectional divides of the US Civil War to view the conflict from outside the national arena of the United States. Contributors position the American conflict squarely in the context of a wider transnational crisis across the Atlantic world, marked by a multitude of civil wars, European invasions and occupations, revolutionary independence movements, and slave uprisings - all taking place in the tumultuous decade of the 1860s.

Set in the lawless Wild West, the hidden world of Victorian London, and the present-day hell of Hollywood, Cry of Thunder: Sherlock Holmes & Kolchak the Night Stalker follows Holmes' trail of a man who was wrongfully - and willingly - imprisoned; a shocking New World Order anarchy; a beautiful woman who needs Kolchak to delve into the surreal past; and the shunned man who holds the key.

Bob Patterson considers himself an everyman - albeit an everyman with a rich, beautiful wife, two good kids, and a mail-it-in job that ignores his law degree. Despite his good fortune, Bob is idling through life, bored at work and at home. In short, he is the proverbial coaster. Bob's wife, Sarah, is the anointed heir to the empire built by her father, Sam, a kind of Kansas City, Missouri, Warren Buffet. Fine by Bob, the family soccer mom, but early one morning he and Sarah awake to terrible news.

Everyone knows that honest, brave George Washington was one of America's greatest heroes. But one thing about George that people don't always know is that he loved animals. He even took one of his dogs with him when he went to lead America's army against the British in the Revolutionary War. And when George discovered a lost dog after a great battle and learned who the owner was, what he did surprised and delighted people all over the world.