My Kentucky/Yale friend Jennifer, who does podcasts for ReadWriteThink.org on young adult fiction, gave us a few recommendations for audiobooks on our road trip. I am writing them down here, so I remember what they are if I want to pick one up on the way.
1. Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories about Growing Up
Jennifer's son has read the book about 20 times! It's by Jon Sciszka, whose name we might recognize (but don't) as the author of the Stinky Cheese Man and the Time Warp Trio. He was the National Ambassador for Children's Literature a couple years ago, and Jennifer says he's very funny and has a cool website/project called Guys Read designed to promote boys' literacy.
2. YA novel Catching Fire by by Suzanne Collins
Jennifer says this cannot be beat although it does have scary and sad parts, including multiple deaths. It's a dystopian story where each of 12 provinces has to choose 2 young people per year to fight to the death in a gladiator-style game, part of the government's effort to keep the people in check. Jennifer says it's brilliant and she hasn't met a teen, college student or adult yet who hasn't been swept away by the book. She talks about it briefly in Episode 8 of her podcasts. It's the YA book that people are currently raving about because the final book in the trilogy comes out August 24. We'll order The Hunger Games (iTunes $23.95), which is the first book in the trilogy.
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Jennifer said this book had her turning pages late at night a few summers ago. It's set in Nazi Germany, but told from the perspective of a young German foster child who, for various reasons, becomes someone who steals books. The narrator, brilliantly, is Death. She says it's a brilliant book all around, but really long. I ordered the CDs and hope they arrive on time for our trip.
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