Historical Audiobooks

A Medal for Leroy

Inspired by the true story of Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British army.A new novel about identity and loss by bestselling award-winning author of WAR HORSE.Michael doesn't remember his father, an RAF pilot lost in the war. And his French mother, heartbroken and passionate, doesn't like to talk about her husband. But then Auntie Snowdrop gives Michael a medal, followed by a photograph, which begin to reveal a hidden history.A story of love and loss.A story that will change everything - and reveal to Michael who he really is...

Michael Morpurgo (Author), Brian Trueman, Mairi Macfarlane (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Million Shades of Gray

Tin is known throughout his Vietnam village as being brave, possessing the calm and courage needed to expertly train wild elephants. But when American troops-who Tin's tribe, the Dega, have been helping-pull out of the Vietnam War and his village is occupied by Viet Cong forces seeking revenge, twelve-year-old Tin watches his life change in a million terrible ways. His bravery is put to a new test: He must choose between staying captive or saving his elephant's life by fleeing into the dangerous depths of the jungle. At once heartbreaking and full of hope, A Million Shades of Gray brings listeners close to a world few know about-and no one will ever forget.

Cynthia Kadohata (Author), Keith Nobbs (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Night Divided

From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen comes a stunning thriller about a girl who must escape to freedom after the Berlin Wall divides her family between east and west. With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family divided overnight. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city. But one day, while on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Then, when she receives a mysterious drawing, Gerta puts two and two together and concludes that her father wants Gerta and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?

Jennifer A. Nielsen (Author), Kate Simses (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Not So Easy Road: The Story of a Little Boy Who Kept His Promise

Lil' Boy is just an ordinary child growing up on his father's farm in a little place called Creek Town. But in the 1960s, even the most average black boy had something to worry about. All Lil' Boy wants is to wear his bright red hat, have some fun and adventure and get out of doing his chores. Then, one day, everything changes. After he is attacked with rocks being thrown at him by several angry men driving their truck along the road, Lil' Boy makes a promise to himself: when he gets older, he will own that road, and no one will ever throw rocks at him again. It's a long journey, but before long, Lil' Boy is deep in the heart of politics and on his way to greatness. A Not So Easy Road tells the story of Commissioner Mose Jones Jr. and will inspire any child looking to make a difference in their home, community, school, or country.

April Jones PhD (Author), Phoenix T. Clark (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem #1: A Dastardly Plot

A rip-roaring, hilarious alternate-history adventure starring the world’s most famous inventors—and its most forgotten. From the author of the beloved Hero’s Guide series, Christopher Healy. It's 1883—the Age of Invention! A time when great men like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Nicola Tesla, and George Eastman work to turn the country into a land of limitless opportunity. And it all happens at the world famous Inventor’s Guild headquarters in New York City—a place where a great idea, a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck can find you rubbing elbows with these gods of industry who will usher humanity into the future. Unless, of course, you’re a woman. Molly Pepper, daughter of brilliant but unknown inventor Cassandra Pepper, lives with her mother in New York. By day, they make ends meet running a pickle shop; but by night, they toil and dream of Cassandra taking her place among the most famous inventors in America. In an attempt to find a way to exhibit Cass’s work at the World’s Fair, they break into the Inventor's Guild, where they discover a mysterious plot to destroy New York. The evidence points to the involvement of one of the world’s most famous inventors, and now it’s up to Molly, Cassandra, and a shop hand named Emmett Lee to uncover the truth—even if no one will ever know it was they who did it. “Christopher Healy, author of the Hero’s Guide series, knows how to tell a good story. He’s done it again with the adventures of a determined girl named Molly Pepper.”—Brightly, Best Middle Grade Books of Fall 2018

Christopher Healy (Author), Tara Sands (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem #2: The Treacherous Seas

The second book in the new adventure trilogy from the beloved author of The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. It's 1883-only a few months after Molly Pepper; her mother, Cassandra; and her friend, Emmett, saved New York from an attack by the megalomaniacal Ambrose Rector while managing to preserve the reputations of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, whose technology was manipulated in Rector's scheme. Their selfless heroism will finally earn them a place in the Inventors' Guild, alongside the greatest minds of their generation. Unless, of course, no one knows that they did any of that. Left with nothing but empty promises and a struggling pickle shop after the government chooses to cover up the crisis, Molly, Cassandra, and Emmett have no idea where to turn-until they learn of a daring expedition to the South Pole, where an meteorite of mysterious power is embedded, and where Emmett's father, explorer and ship captain Wendell Lee, disappeared years ago. With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, our heroes commandeer an experimental seacraft to make their play on the pole. But the trip is more treacherous than they realize, and there's no guarantee that they will return successful-if they even return at all.

Christopher Healy (Author), Tara Sands (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem #3: The Final Gambit

The thrilling conclusion to Christopher Healy's funny, action-packed, acclaimed alt-history adventure! It is 1884, and Molly and Cassandra Pepper, Emmett Lee, and Emmett’s long-lost father are sailing back to New York following their death-defying adventure in Antarctica. Having discovered a subterranean world at the South Pole while saving the world from certain doom once again, surely their accomplishments will finally earn them the recognition they deserve. Unless, of course . . . well, you know by now. And so do the Peppers and Lees. They’re used to having their deeds covered up by the government in order to protect powerful men, and frankly, they’re sick of it. And when their return to New York doesn’t go the way they’d planned, they decide that maybe it’s best to go into hiding and accept that, perhaps, the forces aligned against them are just too great. As the 1884 presidential election approaches, however, our heroes discover a plot against leading candidate Thomas Edison that only they can stop. It’ll be up to them to decide whether to come out of hiding, make the perilous journey to Washington, DC, and do the right thing one last time. Even if it means risking everything they have left.

Christopher Healy (Author), Tara Sands (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Place to Belong

A Japanese-American family, reeling from their ill treatment in the Japanese internment camps, gives up their American citizenship to move back to Hiroshima, unaware of the devastation wreaked by the atomic bomb in this piercing look at the aftermath of World War II by Newbery Medalist Cynthia Kadohata. World War II has ended, but while America has won the war, twelve-year-old Hanako feels lost. To her, the world, and her world, seems irrevocably broken. America, the only home she's ever known, imprisoned then rejected her and her family—and thousands of other innocent Americans—because of their Japanese heritage, because Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japan, the country they've been forced to move to, the country they hope will be the family's saving grace, where they were supposed to start new and better lives, is in shambles because America dropped bombs of their own—one on Hiroshima unlike any other in history. And Hanako's grandparents live in a small village just outside the ravaged city. The country is starving, the black markets run rampant, and countless orphans beg for food on the streets, but how can Hanako help them when there is not even enough food for her own brother? Hanako feels she could crack under the pressure, but just because something is broken doesn't mean it can't be fixed. Cracks can make room for gold, her grandfather explains when he tells her about the tradition of kintsukuroi—fixing broken objects with gold lacquer, making them stronger and more beautiful than ever. As she struggles to adjust to find her place in a new world, Hanako will find that the gold can come in many forms, and family may be hers.

Cynthia Kadohata (Author), Jennifer Ikeda (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Place to Belong

Danny and his younger sister, Peg, are placed in St. Joseph, Missouri, with kind Alfrid and Olga Swenson. Danny is thrilled to have a 'real' father again, but when Olga suddenly dies, he is devastated-until he thinks of an ingenious plan to find Alfrid a new wife.

Joan Lowery Nixon (Author), Christina Moore (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Place to Hang the Moon

For fans of The War That Saved My Life and other World War II fiction, A Place to Hang the Moon is the tale of three orphaned siblings who are evacuated from London to live in the countryside with the secret hope of finding a permanent family. It is 1940 and William, twelve, Edmund, eleven, and Anna, nine, aren't terribly upset by the death of the not-so-grandmotherly grandmother who has taken care of them since their parents died. But the children do need a guardian, and in the dark days of World War II London, those are in short supply, especially if they hope to stay together. Could the mass wartime evacuation of children from London to the countryside be the answer? It's a preposterous plan, but off they go-keeping their predicament a secret, and hoping to be placed in a temporary home that ends up lasting forever. Moving from one billet to another, the children suffer the cruel trickery of foster brothers, the cold realities of outdoor toilets, and the hollowness of empty stomachs. They find comfort in the village lending library, whose kind librarian, Nora Müller, seems an excellent choice of billet, except that her German husband's whereabouts are currently unknown, and some of the villagers consider her unsuitable.

Kate Albus (Author), Polly Lee (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation

As a new generation of activists demands an end to racism, A Place to Land reflects on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech and the movement that it galvanized. Winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for ChildrenSelected for the Texas Bluebonnet Master List Much has been written about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 1963 March on Washington. But there's little on his legendary speech and how he came to write it. Martin Luther King, Jr. was once asked if the hardest part of preaching was knowing where to begin. No, he said. The hardest part is knowing where to end. 'It's terrible to be circling up there without a place to land.' Finding this place to land was what Martin Luther King, Jr. struggled with, alongside advisors and fellow speech writers, in the Willard Hotel the night before the March on Washington, where he gave his historic 'I Have a Dream' speech. But those famous words were never intended to be heard on that day, not even written down for that day, not even once. Barry Wittenstein teams up with legendary illustrator Jerry Pinkney to tell the story of how, against all odds, Martin found his place to land.P

Barry Wittenstein (Author), Rhett Samuel Price (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Prehistoric Mystery

An ancient mound built in the shape of an animal lies in an Ohio neighborhood.

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

Audiobook