Showing results by narrator "Tavia Gilbert" in All Categories

After a 12-year absence from Hopeless, Idaho, investigative reporter Hope Walker continues to find dead bodies. And, this time? Hope has her work cut out for her. The trail has run cold, and this investigation seems particularly hopeless. Plus, Hope is a little preoccupied; she's babysitting three rambunctious kids for her best friend Katie. And, the sheriff in town has got her a little distracted.

Welcome to the world of Droll Tales, in which reality is a mutually agreed-upon illusion and life is painful, paradoxical, beautiful, and brief. With an oddball cast of characters who reappear in various guises throughout these interrelated stories, Smyles reveals an off-kilter world overlapping this one. And in giving us a tour of this enchanted, sometimes absurd place, with its own workings and ways of expression, she gives us a new way to understand our own.

Can you help children be kind? Of course you can! Kindness can be taught and it can be modeled. And stories are an incredibly effective way to teach and model kindness for kids and adults! When Mr. Push Came to Shove, the first book in the Kindness Project series, is an adorable tale about what happens when a lonely old man meets a big crazy family. And it's a story that models kindness for kids! And after the story, there is a short section that helps adults lead children in a discussion about kindness! Enjoy the story, then lead the discussion.

How to Help an Impatient Cow is a fun audio picture book for young children that helps them learn how to become a little more patient. Perfect for children ages three to eight, this fun book is a great first step in helping your child learn to become a little more patient. This audiobook version of the book is a wonderfully produced audiobook, full of clever sound effects, wonderful music, and the incredible performance by award winning narrator Tavia Gilbert!

Carmen Ramirez, 24, a fledgling copy editor, gets her first big break - working on a second-anniversary spread about the killing of a 12-year-old girl. The child's body is discovered at the home her teacher, a closeted lesbian who commits suicide shortly after the murder. After challenging the inaccurate, homophobic coverage, Carmen is pulled off the project. Undaunted, Carmen searches for the truth - a decision that risks her job and her life. Meanwhile, a chance meeting at the newspaper library brings Carmen the prospect of new love.

Beatrice Stallard is your run-of-the-mill, post-college 20-something trying to make her way in New York City. That is, until she discovers the Quest Board one night, and everything changes. The rules of the Board are simple: Complete a quest, get a token. The harder the quest, the more tokens you earn. Get enough tokens, and you level up. Except, the quests aren't in a video game. They're real.

Millie Thayer is a headstrong farmer's daughter who chases her dreams in a way you would expect a little girl nicknamed "Spitfire" would - running full tilt and with her eyes on the stars. Dreaming of leaving farm life, working in the city, and fighting for women's right to vote, Millie imagines flying away on a magic carpet. One day, that flying carpet shows up in the form of an electric trolley that cuts across her farm.

Penny Troyer rarely disobeys her parents. But tonight she's bending the rules because Michael Knoxx, the most famous member of The Knoxx Family Singers, a traveling Mennonite Evangelical family - is scheduled to speak. Penny has heard of Michael - how he lost part of his leg in a terrible accident and uses the experience to inspire others - and knows she must meet him. Though he speaks about living life to the fullest, Michael knows he needs to take his own advice.

Emma Keim was heartbroken when her husband, Sanford, passed away, leaving her to raise three young daughters alone. In the years since, her relatives have made it no secret that they expect Emma to remain a widow, mourning Sanford indefinitely. But when she meets Jay Hilty - a widower with three young sons of his own - Emma is delighted to have a new friend who understands her struggles. Emma is dismayed her family is so opposed to their friendship - and the idea of it ever becoming anything more.

Calvin has been keeping a secret from his wife, but it’s not another woman. It’s a little boy. One afternoon when visiting Sarah Anne’s bookmobile, he meets Miles, a 10-year-old living with a foster family down the road. But after spending more time with the boy, Calvin learns that his foster family has no plans to adopt him. Calvin feels a connection with Miles and yearns to give the boy a home, but he’s afraid to tell Miriam, knowing she’s devastated they can’t have children of their own.

When Katharine “Kay” Swift - the restless but loyal society wife of wealthy banker James Warburg and a serious pianist who longs for recognition - attends a performance of Rhapsody in Blue by a brilliant, elusive young musical genius named George Gershwin, her world is turned upside down. Transfixed, she’s helpless to resist the magnetic pull of George’s talent, charm, and swagger.

Aaron Coblentz has a secret: he’s been studying to take the GED. But he can’t let his Amish family know, not when his older brother already left the faith just a year after getting baptized, practically crippling the family. When Aaron asks bookmobile librarian Sarah Anne Miller for additional study guides, she arranges for Kayla Kaufman to be his tutor. Kayla has a secret, too. Her mother’s death propelled her father into a constant state of depression, and unable to deal with his erratic behavior, her longtime boyfriend has broken things off. But she hasn’t given up on love.

Feeling overwhelmed by an avalanche of online content? Anxious about identity theft? Unsettled by the proliferation of fake news? Welcome to the digital revolution. Wait - wasn't the digital revolution supposed to make our lives better? It was going to be fun and put the world at our fingertips. What happened? Keep Calm and Log On is a survival handbook that will help you achieve online mindfulness and overcome online helplessness - the feeling that tech is out of your control - with tips for handling cybersecurity, creepy ads, untrustworthy information, and much more.

With accessible, concise explanations of the features and causes of climate change as well as pieces urging an intersectional approach to environmental justice, this book is the handbook for the emerging youth climate movement. Using a feminist, indigenous, antiracist, internationalist lens, the book paints a picture of a world in climate crisis and presents bold, courageous ideas for how to save it. Featuring introductions from leading climate activists, No Planet B is essential listening for everyone fighting for a Green New Deal and more.

Miggy Brenneman is a wild and reckless seven-year-old with a fierce imagination, hellbent on pushing against the limits of childhood. Ellen is polite, cautious and drawn to her friend’s bright flame. While the adults around them adjust to unstable times and fractured relationships, the girls respond with increasingly dangerous play. When tragedy strikes, all the novel’s characters grapple with questions of fate and individual responsibility, none more so than Miggy, who must make sense of a swiftly disappearing past and a radically transformed future.

Twelve-year old Karin is blindfolded and dropped into the Hoge Veluwe National Forest with three other children. With nothing but a few basic supplies and emergency food, the children are tasked with working together to navigate one of the Netherlands' most beautiful and wild locations and return home to where their families are anxiously waiting. The youngest of the group, and distracted by her own thoughts, Karin lags behind, suddenly looking up to see that the other children have vanished.

There weren't many women who tried to become doctors when Virginia Apgar went to medical school - but she didn't let that stop her. After a professor discouraged from becoming a surgeon, she became an anesthesiologist instead and created the famous Apgar test to check the health of newborn babies. It's a test that's still used in hospitals across the world today!

Just months after the closure of the Chicago World’s Fair, librarian Lydia Bancroft finds herself fascinated by a mysterious dark-haired and dark-eyed patron. He has never given her his name; he actually never speaks to a single person. All she knows about him is that he loves books as much as she does. Only when he rescues her in the lobby of the Hartman Hotel does she discover that his name is Sebastian Marks. She also discovers that he lives at the top of the prestigious hotel and that most everyone in Chicago is intrigued by him.

It’s mid-September 1893 and Eloisa Carstairs is the reigning debutant of Gilded Age Chicago society. To outsiders she appears to have it all. But Eloisa is living with a dark secret. Several months ago, she endured a horrible assault at the hands of Douglass Sloane, heir to one of Chicago’s wealthiest families. Fearing the loss of her reputation, Eloisa confided in only one friend. That is, until she meets Detective Sean Ryan at a high-society ball.

When the Quests are real, the consequences can be deadly. It's been six years since Beatrice Taylor discovered the Quest Board and her life changed forever. Except the Quest Board isn't in a video game. It's real. Beatrice has worked her way up from the bottom, and now she’s ready to hit the big time and tackle some epic Raids. Except there’s just one problem: the Guild, a shadowy group that has its tentacles in every part of the Questing world in New York City, and it doesn’t appreciate Beatrice’s accolades and meteoric rise.