Showing results by narrator "Torian Brackett" in All Categories

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on first through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment.

The music that would come to be known as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it’s the most popular music genre in America. Just as jazz did in the first half of the twentieth century, hip-hop and its groundbreaking DJs and artists—nearly all of them people of color from some of America’s most overlooked communities—pushed the boundaries of music to new frontiers, while transfixing the country’s youth and reshaping fashion, art, and even language. 

A college grad with the six-figure debt to prove it, Ethan Block views San Francisco as the place to be. Yet his job at hot new dating app DateDate is a far cry from what he envisioned. Instead of making the world a better place, he reviews flagged photo queues, overworked and stressed out. But that's about to change. Reeling from a breakup, Ethan decides to view his algorithmically matched soulmate on DateDate. He overrides the system and clicks on the profile. Then, he disappears. One minute, he’s in a windowless office, and the next, he’s in a field of grass, gasping for air.

Police Chief Delaney Reed can handle supernatural disasters. With gods vacationing in her little town of Ordinary, Oregon, and monsters living alongside humans, she’s had plenty of practice. But trying to handle something so normal, so average, so very ordinary as planning her own wedding to the man she loves? Delaney is totally out of her depth. When a car falls out of the sky and lands on the beach, Delaney is more than happy to push guest lists and venue dates out of her mind. The car appears empty, but someone has slipped into Ordinary with stolen weapons from the gods.

Dougie has a secret: he’s not a ground beetle. He’s a dung beetle, and he loves eating poop. Dougie knows he should be proud. Dung beetles help process waste and do other extraordinary things! But Dougie also knows that if anyone at school saw his lunch, he’d be an outcast.

In a world where even the smallest and most remote village is being terrorized by the monsters that stalk the night, there is a hamlet, prosperous and peaceful, where mortals and vampires have lived in harmony for years. It is there that seventeen-year-old Sheavil Schmidt has slept, neither waking nor aging, for thirty years since first receiving the vampire's immortal kiss.

There is one thing I know about life. You grab it by the throat and go full throttle. Thrown away with the garbage on the day I was born, and doing what I had to do just to survive...that's who I am. I am the filth your mother warned you about. Then she walks into my life. Nothing I expected and everything I could want. Our worlds don't mix. I'm only going to drag her down. I should have never touched her. Life can tear you into shreds, make you bend until you break. Sometimes, you have to face death, so you can live.

U.S. Marshal Will Tanner is a man of the law, not a gun for hire. Except when a friend’s in danger and needs the Tanner brand of help that comes out the barrel of a gun.

You might know that baby koalas spend time in their mother’s pouches, but there’s so much more to learn about these Australian marsupials! Discover why they spend 15 hours a day asleep, and how scientists use drones to monitor koala populations. Filled with simple science and plenty of animal facts, this book also explains why koalas love to munch eucalyptus leaves, and why they are most certainly not bears! It also looks at the conservation challenges these iconic animals face due to climate change and forest fires.

Heard about the fish that clean shark teeth? Or the frog that lives with a tarantula? Welcome to the weird world of symbiosis—where animals form incredible relationships. Macken Murphy, host of the popular animal podcast Species, introduces his favorite symbiotic relationships in his first kids’ nonfiction audiobook, Animal Sidekicks. Along the way he explains the cool science behind the baffling behavior of some animals—from friendly alliances to pesky parasites.

You might know that African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, but there’s so much more to learn about these tusked creatures. Listen to find out why the grandmother is in charge of an elephant family, and why big ears help elephants cool down! Meet a baby elephant as it takes its first steps, and discover how to tell the difference between an African elephant and an Asian elephant. The book also looks at the conservation challenges these iconic animals face due to climate change and ivory poaching.

Follow the lives of individual big cats as they roar, hunt, fight, and play their way through the day. Wildlife expert Tyus D. Williams cleverly weaves the story from leopard to mountain lion in the style of a nature documentary, including gentle science explanations perfect for future zoologists.

Follow the lives of individual bugs as they fly, hunt, hide, and scuttle their way through their day. Bug expert Dr. Jessica L. Ware introduces characters from cicadas to butterflies in the style of a nature documentary, with a sprinkling of simple science explanations perfect for future zoologists.

The ink on Cecilia's divorce papers might be dry, but she’s in no hurry to connect with another traveling businessman, especially the spatially challenged one seated beside her on a crack-of-dawn flight from San Francisco to Madrid. Felip should be on top of the world running his family’s cava empire, however life has left him feeling unfulfilled as of late. Good conversation and a hard-won smile from his seatmate—a grumpy but lovely American hearing-impaired teacher—have him wondering if maybe fairytales are possible.

Take off on a new adventure and find out more about what really happened on Hilo's world with Hilo - the hilarious, action-packed New York Times best-selling graphic novel series that kids love!

The vampire hunter known only as D has been hired by a wealthy, dying man to find his daughter, who was kidnapped by the powerful vampire Lord Mayerling. Though humans speak well of Mayerling, the price on his head is too high for D to ignore and he sets out to save her before she can be turned into an undead creature of the night.   

Thirty years ago, a young woman was murdered, a family was lynched, and New Orleans saw the greatest magical massacre in its history. In the days that followed, a throne was stolen from a queen. On the anniversary of these brutal events, Clement and Cristina Trudeau—the sixteen-year-old twin heirs to the powerful, magical, dethroned family—are mourning their father and caring for their sick mother. Until, by chance, they discover their mother isn’t sick—she’s cursed. Cursed by someone on the very magic council their family used to rule. Someone who will come for them next.

Throughout history humans have been challenging themselves against each other. Who could be the fastest? The strongest? The cleverest? While this was going on some other people decided to create epic contests that were… well, a little bit more unusual. Welcome to the extraordinary world of competitions, introduced by podcaster and expert fact-finder Anna Goldfield! 

Set high on top of Widows Hill, Harrow House has remained empty for years. Now, on behalf of an anonymous prospective buyer, Ishmael and Penny are spending a night there in order to investigate the rumors of strange lights, mysterious voices, unexplained disappearances, and establish whether the house is really haunted.   

A boy who hates bugs starts to see them everywhere. A basketball player’s skin starts to almost drip off his hands—but no one else can see it. Three friends find a hole in the ground that just gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger.... And each story is introduced by Stine himself, providing a personal touch sure to delight fans.