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Suggestions for books on CD for teen listeners?

Suggestions for books on CD for teen listeners?

Community Question is a category inspired by you. Here and there readers write in with questions that are better served by the varied, experiential knowledge of those who read and contribute in the comments. Please respond to this post in the comments, but if you have a question for the community email it to Heather.

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The following question is from Celinda S.

“We are a home school family living in the Piney Woods of East Texas. My eldest daughter has been participating in the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum and we will be attending a workshop for this class in June. The downside is the workshop is in Kansas, an eleven to twelve hour drive. We would like to listen to books on CD while making the journey.

Our local library is small and we have exhausted the classics they have to offer. There is a varied selection of more modern authors but I am not familiar enough with their works to know what would be appropriate for teen listeners. My question for the community is, ‘Can you help us with a list of authors who produce works that are entertaining for adults and teens, that would be considered safe for listening to together?’

Do you have any books on CD suggestions for Celinda and her daughter to listen to while traveling this month?
heathersanders-300x300

Heather Sanders

Hi. I’m Heather, a freelance writer living in Huntsville, a smallish town on the tail-end of the East Texas Pineywoods. Twenty years ago, I married Jeff, the love of my life, and shortly after, we chose to “go forth and multiply.” We have three kids: Emelie, Meredith and Kenny. We homeschool. It's what we do, and it works for us. Tired of feeling overwhelmed, we recently "faithsized" our family into a 960 square foot lake cabin in need of renovation. I write at HeatherSanders.com about faith and simplifying your desires so you can be content right here and right now

Heather Sanders' blog:

http://www.heathersanders.com

Comments

  • Rhonda

    CHRISTY by Catherine Marshall

  • Catherine

    We recently went on a road trip and i downloaded ‘the great gatsby’. So much better when its not ‘required reading!

  • Suzy

    Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt has won book of the year and Alex Award (don’t know what it is). Really moving novel about a 14 year old girl growing up with an uncle during the early days of AIDS. Appropriate and lovely.

  • http://Blog Judith Croft

    I just finished teaching The Hunger Games to my freshmen students. The cd recording was wonderful, and the sequel is coming out in November.

  • Cindy

    Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle) by Christopher Paolini

    The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

    Any title by Rick Riordan (Kane Chronicles or Percy Jackson)

    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

    The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

  • Emily

    The 39 Clues! It’s a series so it’s hours and hours of enjoyment for both adults and young adults!

  • Lisa D.

    “The Tale of Desperaux” is meant for a younger audience, but it is a wonderful story and the CD has a fabulous reader. (Kate DeCamillo)

    “The Lightning Thief” is a book our whole family enjoyed. It has funny elements, but also has good things to discuss. (Rick Riordan)

    “A Whole Nother Story” is another book meant for a younger audience, but our whole family was laughing as we listened to it. (Dr. Cuthbert Soup)

    Again, meant for a younger audience, but the Laura Ingalls Wilder books have a good reader on CD and even a fiddle player that plays Pa’s music in the background when he is playing a song in the book.

    We also like old Bill Cosby albums.

    Oh, I should mention that our kids are 12 & 15.

  • Lisa D.

    This was one of my favorite books when I was in high school!

  • Jessica M.

    I checked out the audio-recording of “The Goose Girl” from my library and enjoyed it!

  • http://multiplemom.wordpress.com Tina

    The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer. Not only a truly excellent book, but a fantastic book to listen to. We did it traveling from Pennsylvania to Michigan and it lasted the whole way there and part of the way back.

  • Ms. O

    Frank Cottrell Boyce’s Cosmic. SO FUNNY. Silly teen that looks older than he is ends up in space. Accidentally.

    The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck. It’s historical fiction so don’t let the first line scare you … “If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of the year for it.” We laughed until it HURT. Pretty quickly into the story you find out who the school board hires as a replacement and it’s about the worst possible choice from one kid’s point of view.

    The Wish List by Eoin Colfer is another one of my favorites. Different characters with different voices (in every sense of the word). I love the last couple lines of the publisher’s description “Irreverent, hilarious, and touchingly hopeful, The Wish List takes readers on a journey of second chances, where joy is found in the most unexpected places.”

    I’d agree with the 39 Clues series suggestion. They’re marketed for a younger audience but, speaking as an elementary school librarian … most of them don’t have a clue about all of the places and artists and musicians that are referenced. Good mystery and lots to tie in.

    Of course Lightning Thief is a great story but honestly the audiobook is not my favorite. So if you’ve never read it and try the audiobook first … know that.😉

    Also if you google ALA and audiobooks they have some great award lists and story synopses.Or SLJ Pick of the Day … was just looking back over the audio posts and found a Gary Schmidt audiobook review that looks interesting. LOVE Gary Schmidt so while I haven’t listened to that one yet you can bet I’ll now be looking for it.

  • http://preceptcamden.com paddlemama

    Focus on the Family has done some incredibly wonderful Radio Theatre productions of many classics. Our family has loved their production of The Chronicles of Narnia. My daughter is 19 and still listens to them. She can quote them almost word for word! What’s neat about these recordings are they aren’t just the book being read. They are high quality theatre productions done for radio. I can’t recommend them highly enough.
    Also from Focus on the Family, our whole family has always enjoyed the Adventures in Odyssey series.
    All of these saved us on long trips! It’s so much better for kids than being plugged into a dvd in my opinion.

  • Caroline

    Good morning- Not literature per se but we thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot from Dave Ramsey’s program “financial Peace Univ.” A friend loaned the program on CD to us for our drive from Virginia to New England and back!

  • http://www.HilltopHomeschool.blogspot.com Tricia

    I second the Focus on the Family Radio productions.

    Also, All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot is a wonderful, funny, and entertaining story (or group of stories) that should be entertaining for the whole family.

    Father and I Were Ranchers is a good choice too. It’s another semi-autobiographical tale this one by Ralph Moody. It’s the beginning of a series and I think the others are available on audio too.

  • JCPalmer

    I, myself, enjoy listening to audiobooks. Since she is a girl I would recommend Little Women and the Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea series. Lots of hours of listening there. I cry and laugh as I’m listening to them, just as I would if I were reading them.

    Another classic I would suggest is The Importance of Being Earnest. Laughed my head off!

    If you have a iphone/ipad/ipod or android phone, there is an app called Audiobooks that is very easy to use and has access to thousands of free classic books (such as those mentioned above). That is nice because, vs. a library rental, there is no due date.

    Hope she enjoys!

  • Katrina

    I listen to books on cd at work practically every day. I love listening to Harry Potter. Even if you’ve read them many times, they are worth listening to. The narrator makes them very entertaining. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull is another great series to listen to.

  • http://kathyniemer.tripod.com/kathysillustratedrecipes/ Kathleen Niemer

    Veil of Roses and Dreaming in English by Laura Fitzgerald; these were both good. My library only had Dreaming in English as an audio book, but your state library may be able to find both. I’m assuming Ohio isn’t the only state where you can request books from all the libraries in the state if you’re a member of any one library.

    Also, ALL the Fannie Flagg books are fantastic, especially “Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven.” These are sweet, funny and good listening for everyone.

    Same with the Jan Karan “Father Tim” series, especially #1 which is out in an “acted out” version with people playing all the parts.

  • Beth

    My 15 year old son recommends the book Leviathan and its sequels (I’m blanking

  • Naomi

    The Fault In Our Stars
    Daughter of Smoke and Bone
    and a classic that is quite different than what most people think…Frankenstein

  • Kara

    Jim Dale is a fantastic narrator of the Harry Potter series. A quick Youtube search of him should result in some samples.

    If your teen is older, Jane Austen books are always wonderful. I’m not sure about the audio versions, but wouldn’t it be amazing to be read by someone with a lovely British accent?

  • http://beckygtxama.blogspot.com Beckygtx

    I loved The Hunger Games series on audio. Also try Suzanne Collins (same author) Gregor the Overlander series. I found them fun to listen to and I am past adult age.

  • Cathy from Arizona

    The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and the Magicians Elephant by Kate DeCamillo. Number the Stars by Lois Lowrey. Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks. My 14 year old and I have listened to all of these. Safe Haven does have some spousal abuse but overall it’s a very suspenseful story.

  • Emily

    We listened to the original NPR radio broadcast of Star Wars on a road trip last summer. Once my girls got used to the fact that not all the actors were the same as the movie, they loved it. Even my not-a-fan-of-scify mother got into it.

  • Jessica Byam

    I really enjoyed the audio versions of Eoin Colfer’s Airman and Scott Westerfeld’s Behemoth series. They are very good for teens and adults alike, and they are clean, fun, and exciting, too! I recently listened to a book called Climbing the Stairs and loved it. I can’t remember the author’s name, but it is about a teenaged girl in India around the time of Ghandi and World War I. She struggles with finding her identity as an independent and intelligent woman in a world run by men, and it is also a touching story of family love and unity. It’s very good!

  • http://www.missgracefilledlife.blogspot.com kathy

    We’ve also enjoyed the Focus on the Family Radio Theater cds. We’ve listened to Les MIserables which was wonderfully done, Anne of Green Gables, and some of the Father Gilbert stories. It makes the time go so quickly.

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