Books published by Listening Library

Keep calm and carry on. That s what Katherine Bateson s father told her, and that s what she s trying to do: when her father goes off to the war, when her mother sends Kat and her brother and sister away from London to escape the incessant bombing, even when the children arrive a...t Rookskill Castle, an ancient, crumbling manor on the misty Scottish highlands. But it s hard to keep calm in the strange castle that seems haunted by ghosts or worse. What s making those terrifying screeches and groans at night? Why do the castle s walls seem to have a mind of their own? And why do people seem to mysteriously appear and disappear? Kat believes she knows the answer: Lady Eleanor, who rules Rookskill Castle, is harboring a Nazi spy. But when her classmates begin to vanish, one by one, Kat must uncover the truth about what the castle actually harbors and who Lady Eleanor really is before it's too late. From the Hardcover edition.
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Steve Brixton always wanted to be a detective . . . until he found out he already was one. It all starts here: the thrilling story of Steve Brixton's first case. Our hero has a national treasure to recover, a criminal mastermind to unmask, and a social studies report due Monday--...all while on the run from cops, thugs, and secret-agent librarians. Just another day for a kid detective. Full of excitement and danger, of narrow escapes and unexpected twists, while also being one of the funniest books of its kind ever written. --Dave Eggers, author of The Wild Things and co-founder of 826 National
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Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the... passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl. As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even realize she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.
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Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love. Thrilling, exhilarating, haunting, and heartbreaking, The Here and Now is a twenty-first-century take on an impossible romance. Ann Brashares' first novel for teens since The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is about ...a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she's found to hold on to. Meet seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn't come from a different country. She came from a different time--a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins. Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they're from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she's told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. But everything changes when she falls for Ethan Jarves.
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Groundbreaking narrative nonfiction for teens that tells the story of the AIDS crisis in America. Thirty-five years ago, it was a modern-day, mysterious plague. Its earliest victims were mostly gay men, some of the most marginalized people in the country; at its peak in America, ...it killed tens of thousands of people. The losses were staggering, the science frightening, and the government's inaction unforgivable. The AIDS Crisis fundamentally changed the fabric of the United States. Viral presents the history of the AIDS crisis through the lens of the brave victims and activists who demanded action and literally fought for their lives. This compassionate but unflinching text explores everything from the disease's origins and how it spread to the activism it inspired and how the world confronts HIV and AIDS today.
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