19 Best Alternative Family Books
Alternative Family is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Alternative Family audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 19 Alternative Family audiobooks below.
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City of the Dead
- By: James Ponti
- Narrator: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 7 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2023
- Language: English
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4.67(3 ratings)
4.67(3 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDIn this fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies go codebreaking in Cairo in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s SpyIn this fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies go codebreaking in Cairo in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.
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Codename Kathmandu, better known as Kat, loves logic and order, has a favorite eight-digit number, and can spot a pattern from a mile away. So when a series of cyberattacks hits key locations in London while the spies are testing security for the British Museum, it’s clear that Kat’s skill for finding reason in what seems like randomness makes her the perfect candidate to lead the job.
And while the team follows the deciphered messages to Egypt and the ancient City of the Dead to discover who is behind the attacks and why, Kat soon realizes that there’s another layer to the mystery.
With more players, more clues, and involving higher levels of British Intelligence than ever before, this mission is one of the most complex that the group has faced to date. And it’s also going to bring about a change to the City Spies… -
Golden Gate
- By: James Ponti
- Narrator: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 7 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.34(3062 ratings)
4.34(3062 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDIn this second installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies returns for another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School forIn this second installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies returns for another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.
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After thwarting a notorious villain at an eco-summit in Paris, the City Spies are gearing up for their next mission. Operating out of a base in Scotland, this secret team of young agents working for the British Secret Intelligence Service’s MI6 division have honed their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.
Fourteen-year-old Sydney is a surfer and a rebel from Bondi Beach, Australia. She’s also a field ops specialist for the City Spies. Sydney is excited to learn that she’ll be going undercover on the marine research vessel the Sylvia Earle. But things don’t go exactly as planned, and while Sydney does find herself in the spotlight, it’s not in the way she was hoping.
Meanwhile, there’s been some new intel regarding a potential mole within the organization, offering the spies a lead that takes them to San Francisco, California. But as they investigate a spy who died at the Botanical Gardens, they discover that they are also being investigated. And soon, they’re caught up in an exciting adventure filled with rogue missions and double agents!
This mission is hot! The City Spies are a go! -
City Spies
- By: James Ponti
- Narrator: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 6 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.33(5806 ratings)
4.33(5806 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDA New York Times bestseller! A GMA3 Summer Reading Squad Selection! “Ingeniously plotted, and a grin-inducing delight.” —People “Will keep young readers glued to the page…So when do I get the sequel?” –BethA New York Times bestseller!
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A GMA3 Summer Reading Squad Selection!
“Ingeniously plotted, and a grin-inducing delight.” —People
“Will keep young readers glued to the page…So when do I get the sequel?” –Beth McMullen, author of Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls
In this thrilling new series that Stuart Gibbs called “a must-read,” Edgar Award winner James Ponti brings together five kids from all over the world and transforms them into real-life spies–perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.
Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI6 agency.
Operating out of a base in Scotland, the City Spies are five kids from various parts of the world. When they’re not attending the local boarding school, they’re honing their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.
Before she knows what she’s doing, Sara is heading to Paris for an international youth summit, hacking into a rival school’s computer to prevent them from winning a million euros, dangling thirty feet off the side of a building, and trying to stop a villain…all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team.
No one said saving the world was easy… -
Hazel’s Theory of Evolution
- By: Lisa Jenn Bigelow
- Narrator: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 7 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: HarperCollins
- Publish date: October 08, 2019
- Language: English
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4.31(584 ratings)
4.31(584 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDWinner of the Lambda Literary Award! The Thing About Jellyfish meets Raymie Nightingale in this tender middle grade novel from Lisa Jenn Bigelow, acclaimed author of Drum Roll, Please. Hazel knows a lot about the world. That’s because whenWinner of the Lambda Literary Award!
The Thing About Jellyfish meets Raymie Nightingale in this tender middle grade novel from Lisa Jenn Bigelow, acclaimed author of Drum Roll, Please.
Hazel knows a lot about the world. That’s because when she’s not hanging with her best friend, taking care of her dog, or helping care for the goats on her family’s farm, she loves reading through dusty encyclopedias.
But even Hazel doesn’t have answers for the questions awaiting her as she enters eighth grade. What if no one at her new school gets her, and she doesn’t make any friends? What’s going to happen to one of her moms, who’s pregnant again after having two miscarriages? Why does everything have to change when life was already perfectly fine?
As Hazel struggles to cope, she’ll come to realize that sometimes you have to look within yourself–instead of the pages of a book–to find the answer to life’s most important questions.
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Wedgie & Gizmo vs. the Toof
- By: Suzanne Selfors
- Narrator: Johnny Heller
- Length: 2 hours 0 minutes
- Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
- Publish date: April 17, 2018
- Language: English
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4.3(196 ratings)
4.3(196 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDFans of Stick Dog and My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish will LOL over Suzanne Selfors’s hilarious series about the growing pains of blended families and the secret rivalry of pets. “A delightfully fun read that will leave you inFans of Stick Dog and My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish will LOL over Suzanne Selfors’s hilarious series about the growing pains of blended families and the secret rivalry of pets.
“A delightfully fun read that will leave you in stitches!”–Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat
Wedgie LOVES the new micro-pig next door. And she LOVES him! They both like to go for walks and roll in smelly things. They are going to be in the school pet parade together. They are best friends.
But Gizmo knows the truth. The pig is Wedgie’s new sidekick. Super Wedgie and the Toof have teamed up to stop Gizmo from taking over the world.
But they will not win! Gizmo is an evil genius. He is smarter than most comic book villains. And more powerful than even Darth Vader! He ordered a flying machine online and he will use it to set free all the guinea pigs at the pet parade.
Then they will crush both dog and pig and make all humans feel their wrath. Muh-ha-ha!!
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Middle School: Escape to Australia
- By: James Patterson
- Narrator: James Patterson
- Length: 3 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: March 06, 2017
- Language: English
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4.28(921 ratings)
4.28(921 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.98 USDIn this adventurous installment of James Patterson’s bestselling Middle School series, everyone’s favorite underdog hero Rafe Khatchadorian is headed to the dangerous wilds of Australia! Rafe isn’t exactly considered a winner inIn this adventurous installment of James Patterson’s bestselling Middle School series, everyone’s favorite underdog hero Rafe Khatchadorian is headed to the dangerous wilds of Australia!
Rafe isn’t exactly considered a winner in Hills Village Middle School to say the least, but everything‘s about to change: he’s won a school-wide art competition, and the fabulous prize is getting to jet off to Australia for a whirlwind adventure!... Read moreBut Rafe soon finds that living in the Land Down Under is harder than he could’ve ever imagined: his host-siblings are anything but welcoming, the burning temperatures are torturous, and poisonous critters are ready to sting or eat him at every step. So with the help of some new misfit friends, Rafe sets out to show everyone what he does best: create utter mayhem! -
The Summer of June
- By: Jamie Sumner
- Narrator: Lillie Ricciardi
- Length: 4 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.26(403 ratings)
4.26(403 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDFrom the acclaimed author of Tune It Out and Roll with It comes a “needed, hopeful” (Booklist) middle grade book about a young girl who sets out to overcome her anxiety over the course of one life-changing summer.Twelve-year-old JuneFrom the acclaimed author of Tune It Out and Roll with It comes a “needed, hopeful” (Booklist) middle grade book about a young girl who sets out to overcome her anxiety over the course of one life-changing summer.
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Twelve-year-old June Delancey is kicking summer off with a bang. She shaves her head and sets two goals: she will beat her anxiety and be the lion she knows she can be, instead of the mouse everyone sees. And she and her single mama will own their power as fierce, independent females.
With the help of Homer Juarez, the poetry-citing soccer star who believes in June even when she doesn’t believe in herself, she starts a secret library garden and hatches a plan to make her dreams come true. But when her anxiety becomes too much, everything begins to fall apart. It’s going to take more than a haircut and some flowers to set things right. It’s going to take courage and friends and watermelon pie. Forget second chances. This is the summer of new beginnings. -
No Happy Endings
- By: Nora McInerny
- Narrator: Nora McInerny
- Length: 7 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: March 26, 2019
- Language: English
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4.22(5545 ratings)
4.22(5545 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDThe author of It’s Okay to Laugh and host of the popular podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking–interviews that are “a gift to be able to listen [to]” (New York Times)–returns with more hilarious meditations on her messy,The author of It’s Okay to Laugh and host of the popular podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking–interviews that are “a gift to be able to listen [to]” (New York Times)–returns with more hilarious meditations on her messy, wonderful, bittersweet, and unconventional life.
Life has a million different ways to kick you right in the chops. We lose love, lose jobs, lose our sense of self. For Nora McInerny, it was losing her husband, her father, and her unborn second child in one catastrophic year.
But in the wake of loss, we get to assemble something new from whatever is left behind. Some circles call finding happiness after loss “Chapter 2”–the continuation of something else. Today, Nora is remarried and mothers four children aged 16 months to 16 years. While her new circumstances bring her extraordinary joy, they are also tinged with sadness over the loved ones she’s lost.
Life has made Nora a reluctant expert in hard conversations. On her wildly popular podcast, she talks about painful experiences we inevitably face, and exposes the absurdity of the question “how are you?” that people often ask when we’re coping with the aftermath of emotional catastrophe. She knows intimately that when your life falls apart, there’s a mad rush to be okay–to find a silver lining, to get to the happy ending. In this, her second memoir, Nora offers a tragicomic exploration of the tension between finding happiness and holding space for the unhappy experiences that have shaped us.
No Happy Endings is a book for people living life after life has fallen apart. It’s a book for people who know that they’re moving forward, not moving on. It’s a book for people who know life isn’t always happy, but it isn’t the end: there will be unimaginable joy and incomprehensible tragedy. As Nora reminds us, there will be no happy endings–but there will be new beginnings.
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The Graveyard Book
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrator: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 8 hours 24 minutes
- Publisher: HarperCollins
- Publish date: September 30, 2014
- Language: English
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4.15(452433 ratings)
4.15(452433 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDA full-cast audio edition of a perennial favorite–The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which has sold over one million copies. Special content in this edition includes the story behind The Graveyard Book, written and performed by NeilA full-cast audio edition of a perennial favorite–The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which has sold over one million copies. Special content in this edition includes the story behind The Graveyard Book, written and performed by Neil Gaiman.
The Graveyard Book is the winner of the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal (the only novel to ever win both awards), the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Young Adult Book, and Audiobook of the Year. This full-cast audio edition is performed by Neil Gaiman, Derek Jacobi, Robert Madge, Clare Corbett, Miriam Margolyes, Andrew Scott, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Emilia Fox, Reece Shearsmith, Lenny Henry, Elizabeth Bennett, Allan Corduner, Sean Baker, Tim Dann, Adjoa Andoh, Jenny Gannon, Dan Weyman, and Daniel Brocklebank.
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack – who has already killed Bod’s family…
Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book by beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman is sure to enthrall listeners of all ages.
Audie Award, Distinguished Achievement in Production, 2015
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The Clackity
- By: Lora Senf
- Narrator: Kimberly Woods
- Length: 6 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.15(955 ratings)
4.15(955 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDReminiscent of Doll Bones and Small Spaces, this “delightfully eerie” (Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows) middle grade novel tells the story of a girl who must rescue her aunt by entering aReminiscent of Doll Bones and Small Spaces, this “delightfully eerie” (Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows) middle grade novel tells the story of a girl who must rescue her aunt by entering a world of ghosts, witches, and monsters to play a game with deadly consequences.
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Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor–the seventh-most haunted town in America–with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her.
There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie reluctantly embarks on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls. Will she ever find Des, or is The Clackity planning something far more sinister? -
Normal Family
- By: Chrysta Bilton
- Narrator: Chrysta Bilton
- Length: 9 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: July 12, 2022
- Language: English
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4.1(2249 ratings)
4.1(2249 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDA riveting, nuanced portrait of unforgettable characters thrown together by chance and DNA, this is a story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one’s true inheritance. What is a “normal family,” and how do you go aboutA riveting, nuanced portrait of unforgettable characters thrown together by chance and DNA, this is a story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one’s true inheritance.
What is a “normal family,” and how do you go about making one? Chrysta Bilton’s magnetic, larger-than-life mother, Debra, yearned to have a child, but as a single gay woman in 1980s California, she had few options. Until one day, while getting her hair done in a Beverly Hills salon, she met a man and instantly knew he was the one she’d been looking for. Beautiful, athletic, artistic, and from a well-to-do family, Jeffrey Harrison appeared to be Debra’s ideal sperm donor.
A verbal agreement, a couple of thousand in cash, and a few squirts of a turkey baster later, and Chrysta was conceived. Over the years, Jeffrey would make regular appearances at the family home, which grew to include Chrysta’s baby sister. But how much did Debra really know about the man she’d chosen to father her daughters? And as a single mother torn between ferocious independence and abject dependence–on other women, alcohol, drugs, and the adrenaline of get-rich-quick schemes–what secrets of her own was she keeping?
It wasn’t until Chrysta was a young adult that she discovered just how much her parents had hidden from their daughters–and each other–including a shocking revelation with far-reaching consequences not only for Debra, Chrysta, and her sister, but for dozens and possibly hundreds of unsuspecting families across the country. After a lifetime of longing for a “normal family,” can Chrysta face the reality of her own, in all its complexity?
Bringing us into the fold of a deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving clan that is anything but “normal,” this emotional roller coaster of a memoir will make you cry, laugh, and rethink the meaning of family. ... Read more -
Freeing Finch
- By: Ginny Rorby
- Length: 7 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: October 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.99(93 ratings)
3.99(93 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDFrom the author of Hurt Go Happy, winner of ALA’s Schneider Family Book Award, comes Freeing Finch, the inspiring story of a transgender girl and a stray dog who overcome adversity to find love, home, and a place to belong. When her fatherFrom the author of Hurt Go Happy, winner of ALA’s Schneider Family Book Award, comes Freeing Finch, the inspiring story of a transgender girl and a stray dog who overcome adversity to find love, home, and a place to belong. When her father leaves and her mother passes away soon afterward, Finch can’t help feeling abandoned. Now she’s stuck living with her stepfather and his new wife. They’re mostly nice, but they don’t believe the one true thing Finch knows about herself: that she’s a girl, even though she was born in a boy’s body. Thankfully, she has Maddy, a neighbor and animal rescuer who accepts her for who she is. Finch helps Maddy care for a menagerie of lost and lonely creatures, including a scared, stray dog who needs a family and home as much as she does. As she earns the dog’s trust, Finch realizes she must also learn to trust the people in her life-even if they are the last people she expected to love her and help her to be true to herself.
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In Search of Emma
- By: Armando Lucas Correa
- Narrator: Timothy Andres Pabon
- Length: 7 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 12, 2021
- Language: English
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3.94(9 ratings)
3.94(9 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDRevised and updated with a new introduction by the author–and available in English for the first time–the moving story of a man who always wanted to be a father and the long emotional road to making his dream come true. Born in Cuba andRevised and updated with a new introduction by the author–and available in English for the first time–the moving story of a man who always wanted to be a father and the long emotional road to making his dream come true.
Born in Cuba and raised in the USA, Armando Lucas Correa epitomized the American dream. He had everything he wanted: an incredible job as the editor of People magazine, meeting and interviewing glamorous celebrities; a steady partner; and a comfortable life filled with travel. But with the new millennium, he realized something vital was missing. A child.
In the years before gay marriage was widespread and legal across the nation, the road to parenthood was difficult for gay couples. Though his family would not be traditional, Correa was undaunted. Every setback, each emotional challenge was fuel that drove him to fulfill his dream. Exhaustively researching the possibilities, Correa eventually chose surrogacy–a long, arduous, and expensive method involving seemingly endless tests, paperwork, and difficult decisions. But with the help of science, a lot of patience, an egg donor, a gestational mother, and the unconditional support of her partner and family, Correa’s dream finally came true with the birth of his beloved daughter, Emma.
In Search of Emma is an inspiring and beautiful story of love, family, and fatherhood that reminds us of that, despite the odds, we must never stop fighting to achieve our dreams. Completely revised and updated to reflect his growing family.
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The Land of Forgotten Girls
- By: Erin Entrada Kelly
- Narrator: LuLu Lam
- Length: 5 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books
- Publish date: March 01, 2016
- Language: English
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3.89(2267 ratings)
3.89(2267 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDIn this acclaimed novel from Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, two sisters from the Philippines, abandoned by their father and living in impoverished circumstances in Louisiana, fight to make their lives better. School Library Journal called TheIn this acclaimed novel from Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, two sisters from the Philippines, abandoned by their father and living in impoverished circumstances in Louisiana, fight to make their lives better.
School Library Journal called The Land of Forgotten Girls “A charming and affecting novel about sisterhood, the magic of imagination, and perseverance.” For readers of Pam Munoz Ryan, Rita Williams-Garcia, and anyone searching for the true meaning of family. Winner of a Parents’ Choice Gold Award.
Soledad has always been able to escape into the stories she creates. Just like her mother always could. And Soledad has needed that escape more than ever in the five years since her mother and sister died, and her father moved Sol and her youngest sister from the Philippines to Louisiana. After her father leaves, all Sol and Ming have is their evil stepmother, Vea. Sol has protected Ming all this time, but then Ming begins to believe that Auntie Jove–their mythical, world-traveling aunt–is really going to come rescue them. Can Sol protect Ming from this impossible hope?
Acclaimed and award-winning author Erin Entrada Kelly writes masterfully about the challenges of finding hope in impossible circumstances, in this novel that will appeal to fans of Cynthia Kadohata and Thanhha Lai.
Booklist said, “Kelly’s sophomore novel is both hopeful and heartfelt, but strong emotions are only part of the successful equation here. Told in Sol’s true voice, the direct dialogue brings the diverse characters to vivid life.”
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Turning Point
- By: Paula Chase
- Narrator: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books
- Publish date: September 15, 2020
- Language: English
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3.85(223 ratings)
3.85(223 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDWhen being yourself isn’t good enough, who should you be? Told in dual perspectives, this provocative and timely novel for middle-school readers by Paula Chase, the acclaimed author of So Done and Dough Boys, will resonate with fans of JasonWhen being yourself isn’t good enough, who should you be?
Told in dual perspectives, this provocative and timely novel for middle-school readers by Paula Chase, the acclaimed author of So Done and Dough Boys, will resonate with fans of Jason Reynolds, Rebecca Stead, and Renee Watson.
Best friends Rasheeda and Monique are both good girls. For Sheeda, that means keeping her friends close and following her deeply religious and strict aunt’s every rule. For Mo, that means not making waves in the prestigious and mostly White ballet intensive she’s been accepted to.
But what happens when Sheeda catches the eye of Mo’s older brother, and the invisible racial barriers to Mo’s success as a ballerina turn out to be not so invisible? What happens when you discover that being yourself isn’t good enough? How do you fight back?
Paula Chase explores the complex and emotional issues that affect many young teens in this novel set in the same neighborhood as her acclaimed So Done and Dough Boys. Friendship, family, finding yourself, and standing your ground are the themes of this universal story that is perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds, Rebecca Stead, and Renee Watson.
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So Done
- By: Paula Chase
- Narrator: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 6 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books
- Publish date: August 14, 2018
- Language: English
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3.85(223 ratings)
3.85(223 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.99 USDWhen best friends Tai and Mila are reunited after a summer apart, their friendship threatens to combust from the pressure of secrets, middle school, and the looming dance auditions for a new talented-and-gifted program. Fans of Renee Watson’sWhen best friends Tai and Mila are reunited after a summer apart, their friendship threatens to combust from the pressure of secrets, middle school, and the looming dance auditions for a new talented-and-gifted program.
Fans of Renee Watson’s Piecing Me Together will love this memorable story about a complex friendship between two very different African American girls–and the importance of speaking up.
Jamila Phillips and Tai Johnson have been inseparable since they were toddlers, having grown up across the street from each other in Pirates Cove, a low-income housing project. As summer comes to an end, Tai can’t wait for Mila to return from spending a month with her aunt in the suburbs. But both girls are grappling with secrets, and when Mila returns she’s more focused on her upcoming dance auditions than hanging out with Tai.
Paula Chase explores complex issues that affect many young teens, and So Done offers a powerful message about speaking up. Full of ballet, basketball, family, and daily life in Pirates Cove, this memorable novel is for fans of Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish and Jason Reynolds’s Ghost.
“Chase vividly conjures the triumphs, tensions, and worries percolating in the girls’ low-income neighborhood.” (Publishers Weekly, “An Anti-Racist Children’s and YA Reading List”)
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Big Rig
- By: Louise Hawes
- Narrator: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 7 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.74(89 ratings)
3.74(89 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDHitch a ride with eleven-year-old Hazmat and her dad in their eighteen-wheeler, Leonardo, for a feel-good road trip across America that keeps on trucking! Life on the road with Daddy is as good as gets for Hazmat. Together, they’ve been takingHitch a ride with eleven-year-old Hazmat and her dad in their eighteen-wheeler, Leonardo, for a feel-good road trip across America that keeps on trucking!
Life on the road with Daddy is as good as gets for Hazmat. Together, they’ve been taking jobs and crisscrossing the US for years. Now Daddy’s talking about putting down roots–somewhere Hazmat can go to a real school and make friends. Somewhere Daddy doesn’t have to mail-order textbooks about “nature’s promise to all women.” Somewhere Mom’s ashes can rest on a mantel and not on a dashboard.
While everything just keeps changing, sometimes in ways she can’t control, Hazmat isn’t ready to give up the freedom of long-distance hauling. Sure the road is filled with surprises, from plane crashes and robo trucks, to runaway hitchhikers and abandoned babies, but that all makes for great stories! So Hazmat hatches a plan to make sure Daddy’s dream never becomes a reality. Because there’s only one place Hazmat belongs: in the navigator’s seat, right next to Daddy, with the whole country flying by and each day different from the last.
Award-winning author Louise Hawes writes with an easy, conversational voice and an “I’ll never grow up” spirit that cheerfully thumbs its nose at traditional coming-of-age narratives. This heart-tugging, laugh-out-loud portrait of a father and daughter is a satisfying journey across modern America you won’t want to miss.
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Steve, Raised by Wolves
- By: Jared Chapman
- Narrator: Sean Duregger
- Length: 5 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 24, 2020
- Language: English
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3.7(210 ratings)
3.7(210 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.001.98 USDOn the first day of school, a wild little boy learns how to fit in–and how to stand out! Just right for fans of Peter Brown’s Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. “Be yourself!” Steve’s mom tells him on the first day of school, and heOn the first day of school, a wild little boy learns how to fit in–and how to stand out! Just right for fans of Peter Brown’s Mr. Tiger Goes Wild.
“Be yourself!” Steve’s mom tells him on the first day of school, and he knows just what to do. After all, wolves are great at HOWLING in class, SHREDDING homework, and POUNCING on new friends!
Steve’s classmates are not happy. Why can’t he behave like everyone else? But when the classroom pet goes missing, it’s up to Steve to save the day–by showing everyone what wolves do best.
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Halfway
- By: Tom Macher
- Narrator: Corey Brill
- Length: 7 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.1(70 ratings)
3.1(70 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDFrom a searing new literary voice, a raw, compulsively readable memoir about a young man seeking hope, community, and ultimately recovery from addiction in a series of halfway houses and boys’ homes–the first book to so vividly captureFrom a searing new literary voice, a raw, compulsively readable memoir about a young man seeking hope, community, and ultimately recovery from addiction in a series of halfway houses and boys’ homes–the first book to so vividly capture this world.
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In his late teens Tom Macher rebelled against a world that seemed stacked against him. Raised in a broken family and estranged from an absentee father suffering with AIDS, Macher turned to alcohol to escape the painful loneliness of his reality.
In quick succession, he is kicked out of school, and then his mother’s house, sent to a boys’ home in Montana, and later, a halfway house in a truck-stop town of Louisiana. It was there that Macher encounters a community of young men struggling to survive–outcasts and thieves, liars and ex-cons, men seeking redemption, men running from the past. As he moves further away from boyhood and embraces a hard-won sobriety, these men–the broken, the hardscrabble, the near gone–become his salvation.
Macher captures the trials of sobriety–suicide, death, recovery–and the unusual beauty that forms in the bonds of those who suffer. In visceral, striking prose, he introduces the unforgettable characters he meets along the way, from a former child actor, a young teen struggling with schizophrenia, a tough-love addiction counselor, a sex-addicted social worker, to Matt O, who became Macher’s loyal friend and wingman. Raw, disarming, frenetic, and subversive, Halfway is a brutally honest portrait of the world of down-and-out recovering alcoholics, and a story of how, in their darkest hour, these men create the bonds that form a family.
Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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