Showing results by narrator "Amy Rubinate" in All Categories

Judy Moody is in a royal purple-mountain-majesties mood. Make that Majesty with a capital M! With Grandma Lou’s help, Judy has dug up proof that some old-timey Moodys (aka the brave Mudeyes) lived in merry olde England. In fact, if her grandpa’s notes are right, Judy might even be related to - royal fanfare, please - the Queen herself! Should Judy start packing her purple robe for a sleepover at Buckingham Palace?

After surviving a terrifying assault during her last investigation, Maria Kallio traded in her badge for a comfortable desk job. But when the head of social affairs for the Finnish Athletics Federation is murdered - the victim of an apparent poisoning - Maria is drawn back into a race against more than murder. A series of crimes has unfolded, and to Maria’s trained eyes, they look like the makings of a conspiracy. As Maria follows the track to a doping scandal, a money-laundering scheme, domestic abuse, and explosive death threats leveled against a sports reporter, she collects the pieces of a baffling puzzle.

A Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book and an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book, The Lily Pond continues the story of two Jewish sisters who left Austria during WWII/Holocaust and found refuge in Sweden. A year after Stephie Steiner and her younger sister, Nellie, left Nazi-occupied Vienna...

After months of maternity leave, tough-talking Espoo police detective Maria Kallio is ready to return to work. But before assuming her new post as head of the Violent Crime Unit, she vacations with her husband and daughter on the island of Rödskär. There Kallio learns that, one year earlier, her ex-boyfriend Harri had mysteriously fallen to his death from the isle's steep and treacherous cliffs.

A lost literary gem of Hollywood in the 1930s, I Lost My Girlish Laughter is a thinly veiled send-up of the actors, producers, writers, and directors of the Golden Age of the studio system. 

When a woman's body turns up in a lake - a bullet to the back of her head - Violent Crime Unit commander Maria Kallio, freshly back from maternity leave, is fast to get on the case. The victim is ID'd as Annukka Hackman, wife of a prominent publisher and author of an upcoming unauthorized tell-all book on Sasha Smeds, Finland's celebrated racing rally driver. Almost as soon as the inquiry starts, it goes off the rails, as those connected to Annukka - and to Smeds - seem to have more secrets than they have alibis.

Susannah Braddock’s worst nightmare has come true: her husband, Riley, has been killed in WWI. Devastated, she turns to her hired hand Tanner Grenfell for support. As Susannah’s grief ebbs, her friendship with Tanner deepens into love. But their newfound happiness is short lived…. Riley Braddock cannot remember his life before the war. All he knows are the two years he has spent with Véronique, the French woman who rescued him from the battlefield and nursed him back to health. When Riley returns to the Braddock farm, both he and Susannah know he’s a different man.

It’s what Sarah Ellsworth dreamed of. Marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Martin. Living in a historic mansion in Pennsylvania’s most exclusive borough. And Finn, a teenage son with so much promise. Until...A call for help in the middle of the night leads Sarah and Martin to the woods, where they find Finn, injured, dazed, and weeping near his girlfriend’s dead body. Convinced he’s innocent, Sarah and Martin agree to protect their son at any cost and not report the crime.

Sharlie Converse is twenty-six with a vivid and romantic interior life. Born with a heart defect that has defeated an army of specialists, she has lived her short life from moment to moment. Everything that matters most to her – color, excitement, adventure – is forbidden except in her imaginings and in the secret yearnings that she has long accepted will never be made real.

Judy Moody is in it to win it. Win the Book Quiz Blowout, that is. Judy and her brother, Stink, are two-fifths of the Virginia Dare Bookworms, and they’ve been reading up a storm to prepare for Saturday’s face-off against second- and third-grade readers from the next town. Judy’s trying out all kinds of tactics, from hanging upside down like Pippi Longstocking to teaching herself to speed read The Princess in Black, and Stink has fashioned a cape of book trivia sticky notes to help him remember all the penguins in Mr. Popper’s Penguins.

It’s autumn in New England and Truly and her fellow Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes are gearing up for the annual Halloween Festival. Aunt True and her new husband, Rusty, have bought Ethel and Elmer Farnsworth’s dilapidated old farm on the edge of town, where they’re going to raise sheep and where Truly and her grandparents have volunteered to farm- and sheep-sit while the newlyweds are on their honeymoon. But as always, there are mysteries and secrets afoot in Pumpkin Falls. Jack-o’-lanterns outside the shops downtown are going missing—in broad daylight!

When elderly witch Enid Pettywood unwittingly summons a demon to Silver Hollow, it's up to Issy Quinn and her cousins to send it back before the committee finds out. Summoning a demon is a serious offense and no one wants to see Enid suffer the punishment the committee is sure to hand down. But a simple plan of vanquishing the pesky demon before anyone notices goes awry when the demon makes the leap from wreaking havoc with the town's electrical circuits to possessing a human.

Jake Matheson can't get Hannah Ashton out of his mind, and he can't wait to take over the reins at his family's ranch, either. Too bad Hannah is about to leave town and his father, Holt, has no intention of retiring. In fact, he's issued an ultimatum - convince Hannah to wed in thirty days, or forget about ever running the ranch. Jake would do just about anything to keep her in Chance Creek.

When Silver Hollow witch Adele Brundage curses the town with a plague of toads until her killer is found, Isolde Quinn and her cousins find themselves thrown into a dangerous world where someone will go to any lengths to keep a decades-old secret. Armed with their witchy powers and unconventional pet familiars, the Quinns set out on an investigation that puts them in the path of a dangerous killer who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried. And when that path intersects with hunky FBI agent Dex Nolan, it's a blessing and a curse.

Two Jewish sisters leave Austria during WWII/Holocaust and find refuge in Sweden. It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and 8-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can...

Josie Slater has allowed the circumstances anchoring her in Sunset Cove to become a life sentence. Since her mother’s death years before, she’s spent most of her waking hours helping her dad run the Driftwood Diner. As her best friends, Opal and Sophia, make their dreams come true, Josie watches her own art school aspirations drift on by. But when a French-speaking Southern gentleman from her past moves back from Europe, Josie is launched into a tizzy of what-ifs and I-sure-do-hope-sos.

Lara Madigan has a gift. She can help you find your soul mate - your canine soul mate, that is. As a dog trainer with a soft spot for strays, she's found the perfect home for sulky Shih Tzus, broken-down Border collies, and diabolical Dalmatians. But while she'll always make room for one more rescue mutt, she's not sure she's ready to commit to another human being - especially after her long-term boyfriend drops the bomb: He's not a dog person.

Right before the start of her freshman year, Emma's family unexpectedly moves to England. The book club is stunned, but thanks to videoconferencing, they can keep the club alive. They decide to tackle Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a particularly fitting choice. In England, Emma deals with a new queen bee, Annabelle, who makes her life miserable. And back home, Annabelle's cousins - who have swapped homes with the Hawthornes - whip the rest of the school into a frenzy.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club is back! This year the mothers have a big surprise in store for Emma, Jess, Cassidy, and Megan: They've invited snooty Becca Chadwick and her mother to join the book club! But there are bigger problems when Jess finds out that her family may have to give up Half Moon Farm. In a year filled with skating parties, a disastrous mother-daughter camping trip, and a high-stakes fashion show, the girls realize that it's only through working together - Becca included - that they can save Half Moon Farm.

From Megan McDonald comes a collection of Judy Moody stories just right for newly independent listeners. Included are Stink Moody in Master of Disaster, Triple Pet Trouble, Mrs. Moody in the Birthday Jinx, and April Fools’, Mr. Todd!