In Their Own Voices: Youth Titles
by DavidQ
I have been listening to more audiobooks lately, and I came up on the audiobook of A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle at the Michigan Digital Library. I was intrigued that L'Engle did the recording for the book herself. I downloaded it, and it was a pleasure to listen to this iconic children's book read by the woman who wrote it... to hear her own inflections and interpretations of the characters. Earlier in the summer, I also downloaded Coraline by the popular science fiction writer Neil Gaiman which lead me to also download his collection of short stories Fragile Things . Again, I was pleased to listen to these stories read by Gaiman himself, particularly since he has a lovely English accent.
All of this made me curious. I've been reading all my life, but most of us don't know how our favorite authors sound when they read their own stories. With audiobooks, we have that opportunity. So I did some investigating, and here are some of the other youth titles available read in the authors own voices:
-L'Engle reads the entire Time Quartet. These are also all available online,
-many of Judy Blume's books, particularly the Fudge series ( some online versions),
-Mary Pope Osborne reads The Magic Tree House series ( online copies),
-Phillip Pullman narrates a cast recording of the great His Dark Materials series and by himself reads Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North (all available online),
-Lynne Reid Banks reads the Indian in the Cupboard series ( online)
-and again, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, scary and wonderful ( downloadable version),
-and finally, a rare gem for teen listeners: Lord of the Flies read by Nobel laureate William Golding ( online version)
That's enough for now. Next time, I'll list some adult titles, and I'd love to hear your suggestions in the meantime. Happy listening!
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