Some interesting books from Audible’s sale through 27 Nov 2017 on hundreds of children’s audiobooks–this time for kids 8-10 years old. (A similar post for kids 5-7 is here.) It’s primarily highlighting some interesting books for my friends; your mileage may vary. Likely omitting many great books, and including some garbage.
- Gaiman’s Coraline. Creepy/surreal fantasy.
- American Girl books. From what I’ve hard, some good lessons for kids. Also perhaps leaning fairly white/Euro.
- Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatrez vs. the Evil Librarians books. I love most of Sanderson’s work, but have never felt that much interest in these.
- Amos Fortune, Free Man.
- Anastasia Krupnik
- L. M. Montgomery. I have a Y chromosome. I liked Montgomery’s Anne books and the related ones. You have a problem with that?
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Church culture meets the kids who actually find the stuff worth finding.
- Birmingham, 1963. Reluctant to get this in audiobook; seems almost certain to be much better in print.
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Brighty of the Grand Canyon
- Caddie Woodlawn
- “Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts”. Pleasant, short-ish intro to two remarkable women and their places in history.
- Crispin books by Avi. These look like intriguing stories–though I’ll probably pursue them in print when the girls are a bit older.
- Crow Call by Lois Lowry
- The Door in the Wall
- Eight Cousins / Louisa May Alcott
- Esperanza Rising – Mexican workers/California/Great Depression
- Louise Erdrich / The Birchbark House and The Game of Silence. The first two of a four-book sequence featuring a young Ojibwe girl. The other side of the Little House on the Prairie era.
- Jean Craighead George. Just get these. Julie of the Wolves, Julie’s Wolf Pack, My Side of the Mountain. I have fond memories of George’s books. As I recall, my young perceptions were that she doesn’t shy away from tension or sadness (especially in the Julie books)–but writes wonderfully.
- The Magician’s Nephew / C. S. Lewis
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Nostalgic memories of this book.
- My Life With The Chimpanzees / Jane Goodall.
- Never Forgotten, of a kidnapped boy sold as a slave, looks good…but I suspect much better in print.
- Passage to Freedom/Baseball Saved Us – Japanese kids in American internment camps learn to play baseball; a Japanese ambassador disobeys orders to save Jewish lives in 1940 Lithuania.
- Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes.
- A Girl Named Disaster – intriguing-looking Zimbabwe/Mozambique story
- Rascal, by Sterling North. Wonderful classic.
- Rifles for Watie. US civil war hist. fiction.
- Sarah, Plain and Tall. Classic.
- Sea Star / Marguerite Henry. One of her many horse stories; her most well-known is Misty of Chincoteague.
- The Skeleton Tree – two kids have to work together to survive in the Alaskan wilderness.
- Sounder. Sad, but classic for good reason.
- Stella by Starlight. Racism themes.
- Strawberry Girl / Lenski
- Sugar / Jewell Parker Rhodes. Looks interesting, though I’m unfamiliar w/ the author. African-American girl on sugar plantation finds herself intrigued by Chinese workers there.
- Treasures of the Snow / Patricia St. John. Tale of forgiveness.
- Unbound: a family flees slavery to freedom in the Dismal Swamp. A “novel in verse”. Looks interesting.
- The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963: looks like an interesting book. Per the blurb and reviews–lots of humor…and the Birmingham 1963 bombing.
- “Who Was…” series. Biographies are a lovely approach to history.
Known Unknowns 