Showing results by narrator "Kate Forbes" in All Categories

Amid a landscaped dotted with farms, trailers, and genteel homes, there lives a talented baker who desperately needs to win a cooking contest but must team up with a down-on-her-heels society matron to do it...the Bramble sisters, whose husbands tend to be short-lived and wealthy but whose latest prospect arrives with complications...a widow who becomes dangerously obsessed with a snake-charming televangelist...and a lonely florist who will do anything for the sake of a ruthless local mechanic.

In 1955, 13-year-old Lyric, her older sister Summer, and their widowed father pack the car. Poor yet hopeful, they move from the hills of Virginia to Flint, Michigan, where "Poppy" plans to find factory work. Once they are in Michigan, Lyric and Summer love the excitement of the city. Lyric makes friends at her new school, but Summer feels like an outcast. Soon, the close bond between the two sisters begins to dissolve. Lyric always knew that Summer was a bit odd, but now Summer withdraws more and more into a fantasy world.

Before the great Disaster, the country of Maynor was known as the "state of Maine." People were free to travel, and there were no birmbas (dangerous mutant animals) to fear. Now the people are walled inside their villages and forbidden to leave without armed guards. Because of her webbed hand, the young orphan Leora is an outcast in Village Three. Even though her hand enables her to draw the visions that haunt her, she fears it will land her in the Institute with the other "defectives."

Virginia native Lee Smith has won two O. Henry Awards, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and the Robert Penn Warren Prize for her engaging works. A collection of 14 tales - both new stories and previously published favorites - Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger is sure to delight listeners with its warm humor and unforgettable characters.

In this Junior Library Guild selection, Little Rose must brush her teeth, wash her face, and climb into bed while Mama takes a quick phone call. But as the call drags on, waves of uninvited guests pass through the front door. Soon the house overflows with bizarre visitors—from “muscley” men to winking wizards. As Mama continues to ignore the raucous revelry, Rose finally joins the party. But before the uproar gets out of hand, something quite surprising happens.

Jane Morrow has a dilemma. She's engaged to Seth Ballantine, a member of the National Guard's 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, and he's returned from Iraq severely wounded. Jane hasn't seen him for nearly a year, and with trepidation, she heads to the VA hospital in North Carolina, where he is being treated. Seth isn't happy to see her. He'd asked her not to come. He wants to end the relationship. But Jane loves him, and despite his injury, she's determined to convince him that they can have a life together.

In a time when the traditional ways of medicine are constantly being questioned by new doctors fresh from medical school, midwife Martha Cade tries to balance her life's calling with the demands of her family. Recently reunited with her estranged 17-year-old daughter, Martha finds herself torn between guiding her child and allowing her to be an adult. At the same time, she must decide whether she'll risk reopening the heart she'd long closed off to love.

Charlotte is not very excited about the doll her aunt Edme sends her. It has a prim painted mouth and is dressed in lace and silk. Besides, Charlotte has never really wanted a doll. “We like climbing trees,” Charlotte tells the doll. Much to Charlotte’s surprise, the new doll doesn’t seem to mind her rough way of playing. By the time they are finished, Charlotte’s new doll is muddy and torn, but her prim mouth has softened into a warm smile. But what will Aunt Edme think when she comes to visit?

In 1946 a young couple is brutally murdered in the East Texas town of Cold Springs. Now—34 years later—rumor has it that the sole suspect in these murders has returned. While the response to this report ranges from giddy excitement to vile loathing, another dead body turns up.

A precocious and idealistic poet, Adelaide Piper can't wait to escape her tiny, South Carolina mill town for the freedoms of a prestigious, far-away university. But she's unprepared for the party-school reality that soon leaves her devastated, demoralized, and desolate. And then she remembers the "Jesus freak" who'd been her best friend - until her spiritual transformation.

Award-winning author Patricia Polacco based this story on her own childhood and the heroic teacher who helped her overcome her learning disability. Even though she is a wonderful artist who makes beautiful pictures with her crayons, Trisha can’t figure out how to read. The other kids make fun of her, calling her terrible names like “Dummy.” Then one day, a new teacher arrives. Mr. Falker doesn’t think Trisha is dumb at all. He knows he can help her read.

When Orange County, Florida, began its Literacy Project in 1994, Kyle Gonzalez set out to instill the lifelong joy of reading into her at-risk middle school students. She and Janet Allen delved into research and studied classroom approaches. As they reflected on the results, they discovered effective strategies that turn nonreaders into the most avid bookworms.

Deeply affected by a teenaged affair with a man nearly three times her age, Marcy Bunkleman subtly shapes the lives of everyone she meets. As she and the people closest to her tell their stories, an incredible picture emerges of secrets and lies, of knowledge and ignorance, and gradually of people longing to recapture those moments of effortless goodness in their lives. As Huddle gently strips away the layers of stories we tell ourselves and others, we find the strengths and weaknesses of people like ourselves.

An Edenesque garden, a haunted tower, a forest shrouded in twilight wherein dwell Centaurs, Elves and a myriad of creatures fantastic and mysterious; this is the setting in which Babb’s "Lirazel" comes to life and where the tragedy of her life must unfold. Her doom is fixed, deadly, unavoidable and all the more tragic because of the choices Lirazel makes as she spurns wisdom for folly in a desperate gamble for love.

For Louisiana Richardson, desperate times call for crazy-like-a-fox measures. As the new librarian at Alligator Bayou Parish's struggling library, she's returning to her Southern roots and facing trouble hotter than fresh cornbread out of the oven. Somehow, she's got to draw readers back in and prove the library is still vital - even as domineering parish board head Mrs. Gunderson plans to shut it down for good.

In a seedy bar in the shadowy corners of Daharia, Jessop comes to the rescue of young Hunter Kohl O'Hanlon. Impressed by her remarkable sword-wielding skills, the Hunters invite her to their training facility, the Glass Blade, though not all are pleased with the intrusion. But they soon discover that Jessop learned to fight from the rogue leader of the Shadow City of Aranthol - and escaped. Now they want to use her intimate knowledge of their enemy to destroy him.

At her aunt and uncle’s farm in the summer of 1958, 12-year-old Dawn and her new friend Charlotte create their own private world: Planet Kid. Away from whiny brothers and nosy neighbor boys, they pass one carefree day after another. But as dark secrets from the adult world creep into Planet Kid, Dawn must make some tough choices - choices that could mean life or death for her friend. In this moving, insightful novel, Newbery Honor author Jane Leslie Conly captures both the innocent simplicity and the haunting complexity of growing up.