Showing results by narrator "Christopher Gebauer" in All Categories

Brought to you by Puffin. Stories to spark your imagination - a celebratory collection of stories, poems and illustrations to mark Puffin's 80th birthday. Perfect bedtime listening, this wonderful anthology features brand new stories and poems from well-loved and exciting new Puffin authors...

Welcome to Barksdale, where all the dogs strive for perfection. Every shopkeeper claims to be the “best groomer” or sell the “best biscuits.” And at Barksdale Academy, the pressure is on for one pup to be named Best in Show. Duke’s cousin Coco, a French bulldog from Paris, is visiting for the K-2 loyalty exam. During this exam, the Underdogs and their classmates will participate in a field day event against a rival school.

It’s winter at the Woofmore and the hotel is down to one guest—famous figure skater Furya LaBone. Ms. Coco wants her visit to be pawfect. The Woofmore needs more guests to stay open, and a good review from a VIP like Furya could save the hotel. But when the local ice rink closes and Furya is left with nowhere to practice for her big competition, it looks like the hotel may be on thin ice. If Rufus can’t help this skating superstar come up with a showstopping move for her routine, it could be a ruff winter for the Woofmore.

Famous spooky-story writer Silas Fang is coming to stay at the Woofmore! Mr. Fang spends all his time thinking about scary things, so he needs a vacation full of rainbows, unicorns, and bubbles. Rufus is happy to oblige. It should be easy—after all, the Woofmore is not haunted … or is it?

A talented cellist with a promising future, Jack daydreams about two things: leaving his isolated village of Massena, New York, to become a professional musician and kissing Emaline Durham—a Gentile girl he knows he can never be with. But when Emaline’s little sister, Daisy, disappears in Paradise Woods, a seething lie turns Jack’s world into a living nightmare.

When 12-year-old Kolby wakes up in an empty white room, he has no memory, no clothes, and no idea where he is. He soon discovers he’s one of a dozen kids living in an extravagant penthouse atop the tallest tower in the city. Adults are nowhere to be found, and, like Kolby, all the kids are missing their memories. The kids in the tower spend their time scaling the climbing wall, riding a waterslide into an Olympic-sized swimming pool, or playing video games on the 105-inch 8K video screen.

Eugene Guterman’s junior year in high school is off to a rocky start. No love life, no new theater production, and if his mother has her way, no more of his favorite comfort food—donuts. Eugene would just as soon spend the year playing small, but that’s hard to do when you’re the biggest kid in your class. Things change when he accidentally tackles the school’s star quarterback and Coach sees the possibilities and recruits the plus-size playwright onto the varsity football team. Eugene is suddenly catapulted into the world of the “The Pops,” the exclusive clique of popular athletes.

15-year-old Dylan has always felt like an outsider in his small town. Isolated when he was younger as the result of his unpredictable, now absent mother and feeling like a disappointment to his grandfather who has stepped in to raise him, Dylan finds relief in the woods behind his grandfather's auto shop. Amidst the cool quiet of the trees, Dylan thrives on bird watching and writing poetry. But one afternoon after spotting an injured hawk, Dylan finds himself pushing out of his comfort zone to track down help for the bird—and ends up rescuing a part of himself in the process.

Frank and Sunny’s humans are bringing home their nibling for a visit. But what exactly is a “nibling”? Frank says it’s a small bite of something, and Sunny thinks that sounds delicious. But then there is a knock on their door, and this nibling is a far cry from what they expected! Nelly has strong ideas about how to play and what constitutes fun, including a nauseating basket ride around the house and a mandatory play wedding—with costumes!—between Frank and Captain Keith, the parrot.

In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Rye’s mascot should stay or change. Now six middle schoolers get involved in the issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with everyone choosing sides and arguments getting ugly. At the center of this story about human rights and Native sovereignty, there are six young people.

In a Beinoni time here should be no war, no terrible illness, no crime. Even if that also means there won't be any great discoveries, any cures, anything extraordinary. Ezra believes that's worth fighting for—or is it?