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Audiobooks Narrated by August Ross
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Scott Craven presents the third installment in the Dead Jed series, the story of a junior high geek who, to use the politically correct term, is cardiovascularly challenged.
After a tumultuous first semester in seventh grade, Jed Rivers returns triumphant—or so he thinks. After embracing his undeadness to put his archenemy Robbie in his place, the thirteen-year-old zombie thought he’d have a much easier time surviving the second semester relatively intact. That was before he came across the antizombie propaganda published by the mysterious NZN Network, a group trying to push Hollywood stereotypes as the truth. Through fear-mongering and outright lies, the NZN Network will stop at nothing to get Jed expelled.
Jed’s attempts to blend in get even more difficult when news spreads that he’s created a zombie dog. And it’s no rumor. Jed shocks even himself when, after seeing a dog get hit by a car, he brings the dog back to life—or at least to undeadness—when some of his ooze slips into the dog’s wounds. The good news is that Jed always wanted a faithful canine companion. The bad news is that the creation of Tread (so called for the mark on his ribcage) unnerves Jed’s best friend Luke. Luke abandons Jed, who then learns Luke has been feeding the NZN Network inside information.
Determined to unmask those behind NZN, Jed gets his opportunity at the end of the school year during Pine Hollow’s annual Science Fair. When the NZN’s experiment goes horribly awry, Jed has a chance to show people that being undead isn’t always a bad thing.
Dead Jed is Shaun of the Dead meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Jed’s not your typical middle school geek. He is, to use the politically correct term, cardiovascularly challenged. And while his parents have attempted to shield him from the implications of being different for as long as they could (Jed was eight and at a friend’s sister’s birthday party when he blew his lips off onto the cake in front of everyone, finally prompting the “big talk” from his parents and an emergency superglue repair by his dad), seventh grade at Pine Hollow Middle School as a target of Robbie the supreme school bully and his pack of moronic toadies is rapidly becoming unbearable.
From being stuffed in a filled trash can as “dead meat” and into a trophy case as the bully’s “prize” to literally having his hand pulled off in the boys’ room (Jed’s always losing body parts—but with a good stapler and some duct tape, he’s back in the action), Jed’s had enough and is ready to plan his revenge. Besides, it’s awesome what you can do when you’re already dead.
At fourteen, Fergy is tired of his family's life style. He's tired of living in a van with his parents, J. P. and Gussie,and his younger sister, Ooma. He's sick of peddling honey and pamphlets of his father's writings. And most of all he hates stealing things, even though J. P.says it's all right to "reclaim" necessities from society. Fergy listens to J.P. talk about the evils of "the system," and gradually Fergy realizes that he no longer believes or respects his father. In fact, Fergy longs more than anything to be a part of that system! One day, when Fergy's father steals a motor home from an elderly couple who have befriended them, Fergy knows the time has come to act. He's fed up, and he has to escape. Early one morning, with Ooma in tow, Fergy runs away. Gussie's wealthy parents live in Boston, and Fergy hopes that if he can find them, he and Ooma can have the "regular and normal" life he longs for. How Fergy comes to grips with his relationship with his parents and his own expectations makes a provocative, at times painful, but always absorbing story about a boy's determination to make a better life for himself.
"In addressing a boy's dilemma over his sense of morality versus his responsibility to his parents, Collier raises some important questions...An engaging, fast-paced story, and readers, who will appreciate this view of these unorthodox characters, will have much to think about and discuss." -School Library Journal
It's 1895 in New York City. Hard times have hit, and life isn't going to get noticeably better any time soon. Almost-thirteen-year-old Chipper Carey is running with the Midnight Rats kid gang just to survive. Chipper doesn't normally like to think beyond the present. His past has been bad enough! Ma died of consumption when he was six. His short-lived stay with Aunt Millie and Uncle Bert consisted of endless beatings. He never even knew his father. Sure, Chipper feels badly about the gang's stealing and fighting. He knows Ma wouldn't have approved. He knows she wanted and expected a respectable life for him. What does it matter that even he sometimes feels he's different, maybe even better, than the rest of the gang?What ultimately has to matter is reality, and without the Midnight Rats, Chipper would have nothing. He'd starve. He'd face thrashings more serious than those inflicted by the police. Worst of all, he'd be alone. Fortunately for Chipper, fate takes over and introduces him to the wealthy Miss Sibley. For once, it becomes possible for him to forget that the rich are the enemy. For once, like his Ma, someone else believes that he really was meant for something better.
"A terrific read...Collier, celebrated author of My Brother Sam Is Dead, leaks out the story slowly, keeping the reader just ahead of the endearingly naïve main character...Young teens will enjoy the adventurous life on the street." -VOYA
Back before the stock market crash, Jack's dad had been working steadily, and their family had had plenty of money. But now, in the middle of the 1930s depression, there isn't much work for a trombone player-just a gig down in New York City once in a while. So fourteen-year-old Jack is doing his best to help out. He's lucky enough to get a weekend job at the town boat club where the "rich folks" hang out, but Jack wishes his dad would at least try to get a regular job. Sometimes there isn't even enough money to buy decent food and clothes for Jack, his sister Sally, and their young brother Henry. It's bad enough that their mother has had a nervous breakdown and gone to live in a "home."
Now Jack and Sally are beginning to wonder how long the rest of the family will be able to stay together, with so little money coming in. Jack's father keeps telling them to look on the bright side-his favorite song is "Happy Days Are Here Again." But Jack isn't sure there can be a bright side when you don't have enough money to live decently. Then, at the boat club, Jack sees an opportunity to steal a lot of money-enough to pay the family's back rent and keep them all together. For the first time in his life Jack is seriously tempted to steal-especially now that he realizes that his dad can't really be depended upon, that it's up to him to take care of the family.
"As the story of a youngster tempted to steal, this is honest and affecting...A melancholy riff that's in tune with universal feelings of responsibility and guilt."-Kirkus Reviews
Paulie Horvath is never going to be a good student like his brother, John, never going to follow his hardworking father into the plumbing trade, never going to ease his mother's mind by passing tests or cleaning up his room. But once he hears jazz by accident from the basement of a speakeasy, he knows exactly what he will do: learn that music and make it his life. Jazz is all around in gangland Chicago, but not so easy for a twelve-year-old to find, especially when his father disapproves of it. Paulie has to lie, beg, and steal just to get time for lessons, time to practice, time to slip across town to see stars like King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. Lies last only so long until they are found out, and a confrontation is coming. Will he choose home and family or sleazy dives with that wonderful music? To decide, Paulie has to face an even tougher question. What id jazz, after all? Author James Lincoln Collier has played and studied jazz throughout his life. Here is a novel that shows us a great moment in the history of jazz, and points at issues that still trouble us today.
Twelve-year-old George Stable wants to be a rock star someday, but he gets horrible stage fright-unless he has his old teddy bear with him. Hiding the teddy in his guitar seems like a brilliant idea. Then George discovers that someone has hidden stolen jewels in the stuffing of his beloved bear. George's embarrassing "teddy bear habit" becomes the center of a life-and-death chase through Manhattan. Can George survive long enough to make his first TV appearance?
At thirteen, George Stable still hasn't made his mark on the world. Oh, he plays the guitar and sings a little. And he appeared on television for six whole seconds once. A couple of years ago, he even wrote a sort of book, called The Teddy Bear Habit. But nothing really exciting has happened to him. But now, it looks as if his big chance has finally come. This agent of his, Woody Woodward, who discovered him during his six-second TV career, has come up with a plan to make him a hot new guitar-playing teenage star-"George Stable, The Boy Next Door." Never mind that George has spent his entire life in Greenwich Village, which is not exactly where you'd find your typical "Boy Next Door." As Woody says, it's the image that counts. Of course, there are a few problems to be ironed out. His pop isn't too hot on the idea, and is packing George off to stay with his uncle and creepy cousin Sinclair in upstate New York, while he spends a month in Paris. And Woody's bosses at the record company still have to buy the idea. There's this strange, bug-eyed guy everyone calls Superman who has to give the go-ahead...
What happens when the dad you don't know suddenly invades your life? Gabe Mendoza is off to the library when his long-absent father appears-and looks to be homeless. His father wants to reestablish a relationship, but thirteen-year-old Gabe is hesitant. He's confused. And his Mom is mad. Should Gabe allow his father back into his life, or keep his distance? Can Gabe's dad, with all his failings, clean up his act? This powerful novella by bestselling author Gary Soto will ring true to kids-and grown-ups-who can relate to the everyday challenges of one-parent home life. Soto's strong voice and poignant characters will draw you into Gabe's world and the decisions that will change his life.
It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live--not walk around half dead, pining for her. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare with the dead girl he fell in love with. Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...These aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears. Cas doesn't know what happeend to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now armed with his father's mysterious and deadly atheme, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay. Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage. She still wears the dress she wore in the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, it is now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. Yet she spares Cas's life.
