Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2003-02-04
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £11.95
Price: £19.99
Review Four Card Draw, Desert Death Song, Trap of Gold & Keep Travelin' Rider / Media Books Audio Publishing:
Publication date: 2007-12-07
RRP: £50.00
Price: £29.00
Review The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Macmillan Digital Audio:
Publication date: 2005-07-18
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £17.99
Price: £8.89
Review Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow: v. 1 (BBC Audio) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Stephen Fry
Publication date: 2002-10-21
Price: £59.99
Review Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4 - Unabridged 18 Audio CD Set) / Cover to Cover Cassettes Ltd:Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire CD Set tells the story of Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 18 CDs. The audio book is also available in two volumes, Part 1 and Part 2, each containing 9 CDs. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the long-awaited, heavily hyped fourth instalment of a phenomenally successful series that has captured the imagination of millions of readers, young and old, across the globe. For J K Rowling the pressure is certainly on to continue to come up with thrilling, pacey storylines that allow her hero to mature into a young man without detracting from the magical secret that has made Harry into a superstar. In this book, the teenage Harry has a certain gawky charm that fits well with his advancing adolescence. As the story moves on, Harry too moves on to a new level of maturity that leaves the reader wondering how he will learn from his experiences, and liking him all the more as a character. Once returned to Hogwarts after his summer holiday with the dreadful Dursleys and an extraordinary outing to the Quidditch World Cup, the 14-year-old Harry and his fellow pupils are enraptured by the promise of the Triwizard Tournament: an ancient, ritualistic tournament that brings Hogwarts together with two other schools of wizardry-Durmstrang and Beauxbatons-in heated competition. But when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire, and he is chosen to champion Hogwarts in the tournament, the trouble really begins. Still reeling from the effects of a terrifying nightmare that has left him shaken, and with the lightning-shaped scar on his head throbbing with pain (a sure sign that the evil Voldemort, Harry's sworn enemy, is close), Harry becomes at once the most popular boy in school. Yet, despite his fame, he is totally unprepared for the furore that follows. [+]This is a hefty volume: 636 pages, of which probably at least 200 could have been cut without detracting from the story. The weight and complexity of the book is perhaps a hint that Rowling now has her eye sharply focused on her adult audience, and the average child-reader (particularly one who is coming to Harry Potter for the first time) may well find its girth daunting. Rowling's ironic and pointed observations on tabloid journalism and the nature of media hype is just one of the references littered through the book that will tickle the grown-ups but may well fly over the heads of her young fans. However, after a slow start, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire really starts to sparkle halfway through with Rowling's familiar magic (and yes, there is a death-sudden and tragic-and yes, Harry does start to notice girls). The crux of this story, however, is Harry's gradual coming-of-age and his handling of the increasingly determined threats to his own life. This book is pivotal, not just for the author for whom the heat is well and truly on, but for Harry and his readers who, by the last chapter, are left in little doubt that there is much more to come. (Ages 10 to adult) -Susan Harrison.
Creator: William Hope
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2007-07-30
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £6.90
Review The Wings of the Dove (Classic Fiction) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Nigel Anthony
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 1995-12
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £3.99
Review Clea (Modern classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Anton Lesser
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2005-04
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £29.36
Price: £14.00
Review Nicholas Nickleby / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Martin Shaw
Publication date: 2008-04-04
RRP: £13.00
Price: £4.99
Review Man from St Petersburg / Macmillan Digital Audio:
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 1995-06-01
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £9.95
Review Balthazar (Modern Classics) (Modern classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Juliet Stevenson
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 1996-08-31
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £6.25
Review Persuasion: Audio CDs 1 (Classic fiction) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Fiona Shaw
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2005-09
RRP: £10.99
Price: £7.75
Review Alice in Wonderland (Junior Classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:Source of legend and lyric, reference and conjecture, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is, for most children, pure pleasure in prose. While adults try to decipher Lewis Carroll's putative use of complex mathematical codes in the text, or debate his alleged use of opium, young readers simply dive with Alice through the rabbit hole, pursuing "The dream-child moving through a land / Of wonders wild and new". There they encounter the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle and the Mad Hatter, together with a multitude of other characters-extinct, fantastical and commonplace creatures. Alice journeys through this Wonderland, trying to fathom the meaning of her strange experiences. But they turn out to be "curiouser and curiouser", seemingly without moral or sense. For more than 130 years, children have revelled in the delightfully non-moralistic, non-educational virtues of this classic. In fact, at every turn Alice's new companions scoff at her traditional education. The Mock Turtle, for example, remarks that he took the "regular course" in school: Reeling, Writhing and branches of Arithmetic-Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision. Carroll believed John Tenniel's illustrations were as important as his text. Naturally, Carroll's instincts were good; the masterful drawings, reproduced here, are inextricably tied to the well-loved story. [+](All ages).
Creator: David Case
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2006-08-15
Dewey code: 843.7
RRP: £35.49
Price: £28.87
Review Les Miserables / Tantor Media, Inc:
Creator: Anton Lesser
Edition: Una Rei
Publication date: 2004-10
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.38
Review A Christmas Celebration: Including "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (Collections) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Neville Jason
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 1995-08-31
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £7.58
Review Swann in Love (Modern classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Nigel Anthony
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 1995-09-30
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £7.25
Review Mountolive (Modern classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Garrick Hagon
Edition: New title
Publication date: 2006-02
Dewey code: 813.4
RRP: £37.01
Price: £28.04
Review The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Complete Classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Juliet Stevenson
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2004-02-14
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.74
Review Pride and Prejudice / Hodder & Stoughton Audio Books:
Creator: Simon Callow
Publication date: 2004-09-02
RRP: £13.00
Price: £8.00
Review The Witches / Puffin Audiobooks:"This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches. " So begins one of Roald Dahl's best books ever, and, ironically, it is such a great story because the premise is perfectly plausible from the outset. When the narrator's parents die in a car crash on page two (contrast this terribly real demise with that of James's parents who are devoured by an escaped rhinoceros in James and the Giant Peach), he is taken in by his cigar-smoking Norwegian grandmother, who has learned a storyteller's respect for witches and is wise to their ways. The bond between the boy and his grandmother becomes the centrepiece of the tale-a partnership of love and understanding that survives even the boy's unfortunate transformation into a mouse. And once the two have teamed up to outwitch the witches, the boy's declaration that he's glad he's a mouse because he will now live only as long as his grandmother is far more poignant than eerie. Of course, there's adventure here along with Dahl's trademark cleverness and sense of the grotesque. Dahl also communicates some essential truths to children: if they smoke cigars, they'll never catch cold, and, most importantly, they should never bathe, because a clean child is far, far easier for a witch to smell than a dirty one. (Ages 7 to 10, or read aloud to younger children) -Susan Harrison "This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches. [+]" So begins one of Roald Dahl's best books ever, and, ironically, it is such a great story because the premise is perfectly plausible from the outset. When the narrator's parents die in a car crash on page two (contrast this terribly real demise with that of James's parents who are devoured by an escaped rhinoceros in James and the Giant Peach), he is taken in by his cigar-smoking Norwegian grandmother, who has learned a storyteller's respect for witches and is wise to their ways. The bond between the boy and his grandmother becomes the centrepiece of the tale-a partnership of love and understanding that survives even the boy's unfortunate transformation into a mouse. And once the two have teamed up to outwitch the witches, the boy's declaration that he's glad he's a mouse because he will now live only as long as his grandmother is far more poignant than eerie. Of course, there's adventure here along with Dahl's trademark cleverness and sense of the grotesque. Dahl also communicates some essential truths to children: if they smoke cigars, they'll never catch cold, and, most importantly, they should never bathe, because a clean child is far, far easier for a witch to smell than a dirty one. (Ages 7 to 10, or read aloud to younger children).
Creator: Basil Rathbone
Publication date: 2008-02-04
RRP: £13.99
Price: £7.94
Review Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem and Other Stories (Sherlock Holmes) / HarperCollins Audio:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2003-04-07
Price: £19.99
Review The Complete Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy (BBC MP3 CD Audio) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
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Models & Brands:
Four Card Draw, Desert Death Song, Trap of Gold & Keep Travelin' Rider, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow: v. 1 (BBC Audio), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4 - Unabridged 18 Audio CD Set), The Wings of the Dove (Classic Fiction), Clea (Modern classics), Nicholas Nickleby, Man from St Petersburg, Balthazar (Modern Classics) (Modern classics), Persuasion: Audio CDs 1 (Classic fiction), Alice in Wonderland (Junior Classics), Les Miserables, A Christmas Celebration: Including "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (Collections), Swann in Love (Modern classics), Mountolive (Modern classics), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Complete Classics), Pride and Prejudice, The Witches, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem and Other Stories (Sherlock Holmes), The Complete Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy (BBC MP3 CD Audio) |
