Health & Family Audiobooks | LoveReading4Kids

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it's like to be young and black. "A powerful collection that opens the reader's eyes to the breadth and diversity of contemporary experience in America" June Sarpong, author of DIVERSIFY Black is male, Black is female, Black is straight, Black is gay, Black is urban, Black is rural, Black is rich. And poor. Black is mixed-race, Black is immigrants, Black is more. There are countless ways to be BLACK ENOUGH. Featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling American black authors writing for teens today, Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it's like to be young and black. Whether you are in America, the UK, or anywhere across the globe, this powerful collection of stories will remind you of our shared humanity. With an Introduction by June Sarpong, author of DIVERSIFY Stories from: Renee Watson, Varian Johnson, Leah Henderson, Lamar Giles, Kekla Magoon, Jason Reynolds, Brandy Colbert, Tochi Onyebuchi, Liara Tamani, Jay Coles, Rita Williams-Garcia, Tracey Baptiste, Dhonielle Clayton, Justina Ireland, Coe Booth, Nic Stone and Ibi Zoboi

Ibi Zoboi (Author), Bahni Turpin, Ron Butler (Narrator)

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Black Ice

Britt Phieffer is not that adventurous. She has followed the leads of others her whole life; her brother, her best friend, her boyfriend. But when her boyfriend, Cal, breaks up with her, Britt is through with playing it safe. For spring break, she convinces her best friend, Korbie, to hike the Grand Tetons with her, something she has never even considered. But Cal is an expert hiker and if there is one thing that will impress him, it's this. She'll train and plan the perfect trip and show everyone how strong she can be. When a freak storm strands the girls in the woods and she is certain she has made the dumbest decision of her life, they come across a cabin and two knights in shining armor, Shaun and Mason. But soon they find out that Shaun and Mason are on the mountain for very different reasons than hiking. They have done something terrible and they need to get off the mountain. Fast. They need Britt's knowledge of the area to guide them and won't take no for an answer so they set out on a harrowing journey through the cold. Britt realizes the only way to get out of this alive is to pretend she is on their side. So she plays nice with the (admittedly sexy) Mason and becomes so entangled she can't keep track of who is actually in control. It is only a matter of time before things turn deadly and Britt truly has no one to rely on but herself.

Becca Fitzpatrick (Author), Jenna Lamia (Narrator)

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Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson

Charles R. Smith Jr (Author), Dion Graham (Narrator)

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Blackbird Fly

Future rock star or friendless misfit? That’s no choice at all. In this acclaimed novel by Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, twelve-year-old Apple grapples with being different; with friends and backstabbers; and with following her dreams. Publishers Weekly called Blackbird Fly “a true triumph,” and the Los Angeles Times Book Review said, “Apple soars like the eponymous blackbird of her favorite Beatles song.” Apple has always felt a little different from her classmates. She and her mother moved to Louisiana from the Philippines when she was little, and her mother still cooks Filipino foods and chastises Apple for becoming “too American.” When Apple’s friends turn on her and everything about her life starts to seem weird and embarrassing, Apple turns to music. If she can just save enough to buy a guitar and learn to play, maybe she can change herself. It might be the music that saves her . . . or it might be her two new friends, who show her how special she really is. Erin Entrada Kelly deftly brings Apple’s conflicted emotions to the page in her debut novel about family, friendship, popularity, and going your own way. “A must-read for those kids cringing at their own identities.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

Erin Entrada Kelly (Author), Ferdelle Capistrano (Narrator)

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Blackout: Sebastian Cleary

A mothballed power station, a teenage drug dealer and a cult. The mix is electrifying. Young James Bond meets Breaking Bad... A counter-terrorism operative shows up tortured to death. An elderly prof goes missing. An eco-cult is recruiting at a weekend concert for young people at Battersea Power Station. A teenage felon's got to make a simple swap: Some photos for his freedom. Only he's trapped inside Battersea Power Station. No swap. No way he can tell anyone about it. And the dawning horror that this time the missing and the dead will bring England to its knees. He's got his GCSEs, his guitar, and a grasp of engineering. That's got to be enough. To free himself. And save London.

Sam Grenfall (Author), Liam Gerrard (Narrator)

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Blended

Eleven-year-old Isabella's blended family is more divided than ever in this thoughtful story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper. Eleven-year-old Isabella's parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she's Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she's Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves. Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they're always about HER. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them than ever. And she's is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: it's also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: "You're so exotic!" "You look so unusual." "But what are you really?" She knows what they're really saying: "You don't look like your parents." "You're different." "What race are you really?" And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn't just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you're only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole? It seems like nothing can bring Isabella's family together again—until the worst happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by the police. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun. And shots are fired.

Sharon M. Draper (Author), Sharon M. Draper (Narrator)

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Blending Worlds: Three Immigrant Families

Kira Freed, Sherry Sterling (Author), Highlights For Children (Narrator)

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Bless This Mouse

A church mouse is no ordinary mouse, and Hildegarde-the Mouse Mistress of Saint Bartholemew's-is no ordinary mouse leader. It falls to her to keep all the church mice safe and out of sight. But when a few parishioners report mouse sightings, Hildegarde and the rest of the church mice must face a most dreadful consequence: the Great X. To complicate things, a ceremony called the Blessing of the Animals is fast approaching. Saint Bartholemew's will soon be filled with pets . . . including cats! Oh, dear. Within the stately stone walls of the church, life is not as serene or safe as one might think. It will take the courage and patience of a-well, of a saint-to keep this scampering, squeaking tribe of Hildegarde's intact.

Lois Lowry (Author), Bernadette Dunne (Narrator)

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Blind Ambition

Rachelle Burk (Author), Highlights For Children (Narrator)

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Blob

It's hard enough for Eve to adjust to a new high school without the extra weight she's gained over the summer. Her best friend is ashamed to hang out with her, and she's become the focus of a schoolmate's cruelty. Determined not to be "that pathetic fat girl" at school, Eve struggles with a diet and forces herself to join a mentoring program. The diet only makes her food obsessed, and she feels she is failing as a mentor. How can a lonely fat girl gain the confidence she needs to succeed?

Frieda Wishinsky (Author), Arielle Lipshaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

Blood of My Blood

Jazz Dent has been shot and left to die in New York City. His girlfriend Connie is in the clutches of Jazz's serial killer father, Billy. And his best friend Howie is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz's own home in tiny Lobo's Nod. Somehow, these three must rise above the horrors their lives have become and find a way to come together in pursuit of Billy. But then Jazz crosses a line he's never crossed before, and soon the entire country is wondering: "Like father, like son?" Who is the true monster? The chase is on, and beyond Billy there lurks something much, much worse. Prepare to meet...the Crow King.

Barry Lyga (Author), Charlie Thurston (Narrator)

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Bloomability

My second life began when I was kidnapped by two complete strangers . . . That the kidnappers are actually Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max makes no difference to thirteen-year-old Domenica Santolina Doone, better known as Dinnie--she just doesn't want to go. Dinnie's accustomed to change, with her family constantly moving for "opportunity"--but when her aunt and uncle whisk her far away to an international school in Switzerland, she's not sure she's ready to face this "opportunity" alone. All at once she finds herself in a foreign country, surrounded by kids from different cultures speaking all sorts of languages and sharing various beliefs. Home and her first life seem so far away. But new friendships and the awesome beauty of Switzerland begin to unlock thoughts and dreams within her. Her joys and struggles make up a rich tapestry of experiences she can find nowhere else. Switzerland begins to be more than a temporary home--it becomes a part of Dinnnie herself, the self she never knew she could be. Switzerland is the picturesque backdrop of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech's new novel about a young girl discovering the beauty of nature, her place in the world, the value of friendship--and that life is full of wonderful "bloomabilites."

Sharon Creech (Author), Mandy Siegfried (Narrator)

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