The Biographies category has 727 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 1,004 ratings. The most-rated is Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.
Josephine
Summary
In exuberant verse, Patricia Hruby Powell creates an extraordinary portrait of the passionate performer and civil rights advocate Josephine Baker, the woman who worked her way from the slums of St. Louis to the grandest stages in the world. Meticulously researched by the author, Josephine's powerful story of struggle and triumph is an inspiration and a spectacle, just like the legend herself.
©2014 Patricia Hruby Powell (P)2014 Recorded Books
Coretta Scott
Summary
Walking many miles to school in the dusty road, young Coretta knew, too well, the unfairness of life in the segregated south. A yearning for equality began to grow. Together with Martin Luther King, Jr., she gave birth to a vision and a journey - with dreams of freedom for all. This extraordinary poetic text by Ntozake Shange captures the movement for civil rights in the United States and honors its most elegant inspiration, Coretta Scott.
©2011 HarperCollins (P)2013 Weston Woods
Jackie Robinson
Summary
In an era of discrimination, Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson broke Major League Baseball's race barrier. Before Robinson took his place at first base, the majors discriminated against African-American athletes, denying them a chance to compete. Despite facing harassment from fans and other players, Robinson stayed focused on the game, becoming the MLB Rookie of the Year in 1947 and later a baseball legend. This biography follows Robinson's time on semi-pro teams, his days in the US military, and his history-making experience with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
©2020 Blake Hoena (P)2021 Lerner Digital™
Sterling Biographies
Summary
The name still sends shivers down the spine and has the power to draw in young readers: Geronimo, the legendary Indian who inspired and fought for his people. But who was this man, really? Here is the riveting tale of the last Apache warrior - told by the author of the best-selling Little Britches. Born in 1829 and steeped in the skills and stoicism valued by his tribe, Geronimo was transformed into a feared and respected renegade after witnessing the brutal slaughter of his family. Ultimately he spent more than 25 years eluding the U.S. Army, which sent 5,000 soldiers to hunt him down
©2006 Sterling (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Swordsmen, Saints, and Scholars: Great Men and Women of the Middle Ages
Summary
In this audiobook, master storyteller Jim Weiss introduces young listeners to some of the most fascinating people and events of the Middle Ages.
Attila the Hun makes an empire shake with fear. Sir William Marshall outfights every opponent - yet shows mercy even to his enemies.
Hildegard of Bingen writes beautiful music - and writes advice letters to kings and queens! Muhammad changes the map of the world, and inspires a faith that guides millions of people.
Eleanor of Aquitaine fights for power in a world ruled by men. Moses Maimonides heals illnesses of the body and the spirit.
The scholars of Baghdad create an enormous library filled with the world’s books, while the cathedral-builders of Chartres shape stone and glass into a creation of stunning beauty.
Jim Weiss brings to life the people of the Middle Ages - Jews, Christians, and Muslims - in these mini-biographies that will entertain and educate children and parents alike.
©2018 James Weiss (P)2018 James Weiss
The Cat I Never Named
Summary
It is 1992, and Bihac, Amra's hometown, is a multicultural city with Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. But when tensions escalate, the Serbs turn on their Bosnian neighbors. The Serbs control the army, and now they have peaceful Bihac surrounded. Soon Amra and her family are dealing with starvation and the threat of brutal violence; school, friendships, and the attentions from a new boy have to take a back seat to finding food and the tragic fallout from rising bigotry and ethnic hatred. Through it all, a stray cat, Maci, serves as a guardian spirit to the entire family.
©2020 Amra Sabic-El-Rayess and Laura L. Sullivan (P)2021 Recorded Books
Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different
Summary
Boys can be anything they want to be! This timely audiobook joins and expands the gender-role conversation and gives middle-grade boys a welcome alternative message: that masculinity can mean many things. You won't find any stories of slaying dragons or saving princesses here. In Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different, author Ben Brooks offers a welcome alternative narrative: one that celebrates introverts and innovators, sensitivity and resilience, individuality and expression. It's an accessible compilation of 75 famous and not-so-famous men from the past to the present day, every single one of them a rule-breaker and stereotype-smasher in his own way. Entries include Frank Ocean, Salvador Dali, Beethoven, Barack Obama, Ai Weiwei, Jesse Owens, and so many more - heroes from all walks of life and from all over the world.
©2018 Ben Brooks (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Free Lunch
Summary
A distinctive new voice: Rex Ogle's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program is timely, heartbreaking, and true. Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle's first semester in sixth grade. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, Rex's is a compelling story of a more profound hunger - that of a child for his parents' love and care. Compulsively listenable, beautifully crafted, and authentically told with the voice and point of view of a sixth-grade kid, Free Lunch is a remarkable debut by a gifted storyteller.
©2019 Rex Ogle (P)2019 Recorded Books
Fauja Singh Keeps Going
Summary
Fauja Singh was born determined. He was also born with legs that wouldn't allow him to play cricket with his friends or carry him to school miles from his village in Punjab. But that didn't stop him. Working on his family's farm, Fauja grew stronger to meet his own full potential. He never stopped striving. At the age of 81, after a lifetime of making his body, mind, and heart stronger, Fauja decided to run his first marathon. He went on to break records all around the world and became the first person over 100 to complete the grueling long-distance race. This exuberant true story of Fauja Singh reminds us that it's both where we start and how we finish that makes our journey unforgettable.
©2020 Simran Jeet Singh (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Amazing Muslims Who Changed the World
Summary
Brought to you by Puffin. Think you know who first thought of the theory of evolution? Ever wondered who created the oldest university in the world? And have you heard the incredible tale of the masked knight - a rebel girl who became a military commander? Meet just some of the amazing Muslim men and women who have changed our world - from pirate queens, nurses, warriors, scientists, actors and mathematicians to courageous, ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things. You'll find people you might know, like Malala Yousafzai, Mo Farah and Muhammad Ali, as well as some you might not, such as: Hasan Ibn Al-Haytham: the first scientist to prove theories about how light travels, hundreds of years before Isaac Newton Sultan Razia: a fearsome female ruler G. Willow Wilson: the comic book artist who created the first ever Muslim Marvel character Ibtihaj Muhammad: the Olympic and world-champion fencer and the first American to compete in the games wearing hijab Noor Inayat Khan: the Indian princess who became a British spy during WWII
©2020 Burhana Islam (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Who Was Roald Dahl?
Summary
Roald Dahl is one of the most famous children's book authors ever. Now, in this Who Was...? biography, children will learn of his real-life adventures. A flying ace for the British air force, he was married to an Academy Award-winning actress. He also wrote books and screenplays for adults.
©2012 True Kelley (P)2016 Listening Library
Out of Hiding
Summary
Ruth Gruener was a hidden child during the Holocaust. At the end of the war, she and her parents were overjoyed to be free. But their struggles as displaced people had just begun. In war-ravaged Europe, they waited for paperwork for a chance to come to America. Once they arrived in Brooklyn, they began to build a new life but spoke little English. Ruth started at a new school and tried to make friends - but continued to fight nightmares and flashbacks of her time during World War II. The family's perseverance is a classic story of the American dream but also illustrates the difficulties that millions of immigrants face in the aftermath of trauma. This is a gripping and human account of a survivor's journey forward with timely connections to refugee and immigrant experiences worldwide today. With a foreword by Alan Gratz, New York Times best-selling author of Refugee.
©2020 Ruth Gruener (P)2020 Scholastic Inc.
The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor
Summary
In this adaptation for middle graders based on her best-selling adult memoir, My Beloved World, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor's extraordinary life inspires. Her achievement serves as a true testament to the fact that no matter the obstacles, dreams can come true. Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, was a young girl when she dared to dream big. Her dream? To become a lawyer and a judge. As Justice Sotomayor explains, "When I was a child my family was poor and we knew no lawyers or judges and none lived in our neighborhood. I knew nothing about the Supreme Court and how much its work in reinterpreting the Constitution and the laws of the United States affected peoples' lives. You cannot dream of becoming something you don't even know about. That has been the most important lesson of my life. You have to learn to dream big dreams." Sonia did not let the hardships of her background - which included growing up in the rough housing projects of New York City's South Bronx, dealing with juvenile diabetes, coping with parents who argued and fought personal demons, and worrying about money - stand in her way. Always, she believed in herself. Her determination, along with guidance from generous mentors and the unwavering love of her extended Puerto Rican family, propelled her ever forward.
©2018 Sonia Sotomayor (P)2018 Listening Library
Permanent Record (Young Readers Edition)
Summary
A young listener’s adaptation of whistleblower and bestselling author Edward Snowden's memoir, Permanent Record - featuring a brand-new afterword that includes resources to learn about the basics of digital security. In 2013, Edward Snowden shocked the world when he revealed that the United States government was secretly building a system of mass surveillance with the ability to gaze into the private lives of every person on earth. Phone calls, text messages, emails - nothing was safe from prying eyes. Now the man who risked everything to expose the truth about government spying describes for a new generation how he helped build that system, what motivated him to try to bring it down, and how young people can strive to protect their privacy in the digital age. “Snowden's sprightly prose, his deep technical knowledge, his superb knack for explaining complex matters, his ability to articulate principled action all come together in a book that is, if anything, better than the adult version.” (Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing) A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
©2021 Edward Snowden (P)2021 Macmillan Audio
Guys Read: True Stories
Summary
Visiting the dentist - in ancient Egypt Spending a night in the jungle - with giant tarantulas Wrestling with a grizzly bear - and living to tell the tale The fifth installment in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading features 10 stories that are 100% amazing, 100% adventurous, 100% unbelievable - and 100% true. A star-studded group of award-winning nonfiction authors and journalists provides something for every listener, all aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Compiled and edited by real-life literature legend Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: True Stories is a mind-blowing collection of essays, biographies, travelogues, and more, all proving that the truth is most definitely out there. The full list of narrators includes: Bruce Thomas, Hillary Huber, Robin Weigert, Thaao Penghilis, Greg Itzin, Freda Foh Shen, George Newbern, MacLeod Andrews, Jim Beaver, Jack Garrett, Ethan Sawyer, and Adam Conner.
©2014 John Scieszka (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers
Eleanor
Summary
Though she came from a wealthy and privileged family, Eleanor Roosevelt grew up in a cheerless household that left her lonely and shy. Years passed before Eleanor began to discover in herself the qualities of intelligence, compassion, and strength that made her a remarkable woman. In Eleanor, two-time Caldecott Medal winner Barbara Cooney paints a meticulously researched, lushly detailed picture of Eleanor's childhood world - but most importantly, she captures the essence of the little girl whose indomitable spirit would make her one of the greatest and most beloved first ladies of all time.
©1999 Barbara Cooney (P)2018 Listening Library
Farewell to Manzanar
Summary
During World War II a community called Manzanar was hastily created in the high mountain desert country of California, east of the Sierras. Its purpose was to house thousands of Japanese-American internees. One of the first families to arrive was the Wakatsukis, who were ordered to leave their fishing business in Long Beach and take with them only the belongings they could carry. For Jeanne Wakatsuki, a seven-year-old child, Manzanar became a way of life in which she struggled and adapted, observed and grew. For her father it was essentially the end of his life. At age 37, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls life at Manzanar through the eyes of the child she was. She tells of her fear, confusion, and bewilderment as well as the dignity and great resourcefulness of people in oppressive and demeaning circumstances. Written with her husband, Jeanne delivers a powerful first-person account that reveals her search for the meaning of Manzanar. Farewell to Manzanar has become a staple of curriculum in schools and on campuses across the country. Last year the San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the 20th century’s 100 best nonfiction books from west of the Rockies.
©1973 James D. Houston. Afterword © 2002 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston (P)2019 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Marine!
Summary
The gripping story of an extraordinary American hero, the most decorated man in US Marine Corps history, from a New York Times best-selling author. In the glorious chronicles of the US Marine Corps, no name is more revered than that of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller. The only fighting man to receive the Navy Cross five separate times - a military honor second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor - he was the epitome of a professional warrior. A son of the South, descendant of Robert E. Lee, and cousin to George S. Patton, Puller began his enlisted career during World War I and moved up through the ranks as he proved his battlefield mettle in Haiti and Nicaragua, with the Horse Marines in Peking, in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and in the nightmarish winter engagements of the Korean War. Fearless and seemingly indestructible, adored by the troops he championed yet forced into early retirement by a high command that resented his "lowly" beginnings and unwillingness to play politics, Puller remains one of most towering figures in American military history. Bestselling military biographer Burke Davis paints the definitive portrait of this extraordinary marine hero.
©1962 Burke Davis (P)2019 Tantor
Shaken: Young Reader's Edition
Summary
Your identity is defined - not by changing circumstances - but an unchanging God! Whether you're celebrating an incredible victory or facing life's biggest disappointment, your response will reveal who you really are. In this powerful book designed specifically for young Christians, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow provides an intimate look into how he's been able to face professional triumphs and defeats and still emerge with his faith and identity intact. In Shaken: The Young Reader's Edition, Tebow shares his insight for shaping an identity based not on your highs and lows, but on God. He examines the courageous lives of Biblical figures and the many inspirational people he's met to show you how to: Overcome your fears and accept God's perfect, unconditional love Transform your insecurities into opportunities for growth Embrace your unique, God-given talents to make a difference in your world With honesty that speaks directly to the heart, Tebow will inspire you to build a God-centered identity and begin today to live out your divine purpose!
©2017 Timothy R. Tebow (P)2019 Tantor
Who Was Sacagawea?
Summary
Sacagawea was only 16 when she made one of the most remarkable journeys in American history, traveling 4,500 miles by foot, canoe, and horse - all while carrying a baby on her back! Without her, the Lewis and Clark expedition might have failed. Through this engaging audiobook, kids will understand the reasons that today, 200 years later, she is still remembered and immortalized on a golden dollar coin.
©2002 Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin (P)2019 Listening Library