It seems I started posting Through the Looking-Glass before This Country of Ours Part 3 was quite finished. Oops :) So now I’ll start posting the rest:
29 The Founding of Connecticut and War with the Indians
30 The Founding of New Haven
Happy November! Here are a few more chapters of The Apple Stone for you:
55 The Apple Stone, Ch 5: The Sword and The Planets
56 The Apple Stone, Ch. 6: The Feathered Serpent
57 The Apple Stone, Ch. 7: Detectives
“The Sword and the Planets” might be my favorite chapter… well, one of my favorites, anyway. I love Sir Amias.
The Apple Stone, by Nicholas Stuart Gray, is very special to me. My sister and I discovered it in the library when we were little, and just devoured it. It is out of print, but I managed to find a nice ex-library hardback on Amazon to read from, since there is not one single copy in the entire San Diego Library system. Grr. It’s a forgotten treasure.
It takes place in England, and there are some elements I definitely didn’t understand when I was little, especially the way the narrator refers to his two Scottish cousins (a MacDonald and a Campbell) as “The Clans”, and why “The Forbidden Word” was so very forbidden. That was the olden days and we didn’t have Google…
This is not a typical “magic adventure” story. It’s beautifully written, and a bit dark, and so poetic. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Here are the first four chapters:
51 The Apple Stone, Ch. 1: The Golden Apple
52 The Apple Stone, Ch. 2: Bird Of Paradise
53 The Apple Stone, Ch. 3: Lost – One Old Rug
54 The Apple Stone, Ch. 4: The Bleep
Oops, forgot to post these chapters as they went up on my podcast feed. Here are the remaining chapters of Half Magic, by Edward Eager:
46 Half Magic Ch.4 What Happened to Katharine
47 Half Magic Ch.5 What Happened to Martha
48 Half Magic Ch.6 What Happened to Jane
49 Half Magic Ch.7 How it Ended
50 Half Magic Ch.8 How it Began Again
And that’s the end of Half Magic. If you liked it, go read all of Edward Eager’s other books! “Magic by the Lake” is the next one.
It’s time for a new story in the “Kayray Reads to You” podcast. This is “Half Magic” by Edward Eager, a wonderful book and the first part of a whole series of in which ordinary children have magic adventures. The author acknowledges his debt to E. Nesbit in every book. I hope you enjoy this one, and I hope you’ll track down more of Eager’s books. Ooo look, here’s a lovely little boxed set!
http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Magic-Boxed-Edward-Eager/dp/0152025464!
Episode 43:
Half Magic Ch.1 How it Began – 21:09
Episode 44:
Half Magic Ch.2 What Happened to their Mother – 13:59
Episode 45:
Half Magic Ch.3 What Happened to Mark – 34:34
Here are the last two chapters of part 3 of This Country of Ours:
27 How The Quakers First Came to new England – 00:09:27
28 How Maine and New Hampshire were Founded – 00:08:27
Oops. Forgot :) This will catch you up with the podcast feed:
Episode 32: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 11, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 11, Part 2 (8:52)
Episode 33: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 12, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 12, Part 1 (9:59)
Episode 34: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 12, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 12, Part 2 (5:27)
Episode 35: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 13, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 13, Part 1 (8:02)
Episode 36: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 13, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 13, Part 2 (4:38)
Episode 37: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 14, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 14, Part 1 (9:39)
Episode 38: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 14, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 14, Part 2 (9:36)
Episode 39: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 14, part 3:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 14, Part 3 (7:10)
Episode 40: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 15, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 15, Part 1 (7:44)
Episode 41: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 15, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 15, Part 2 (8:15)
And the very last part:
Episode 42: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 15, part 3:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 15, Part 3 (8:30)
LOL! How I love the Bagthorpes.
Yesterday, August 10th 2010, was LibriVox’s 5-year anniversary. I can hardly believe it. We cataloged our very first free, public domain audiobook (The Secret Agent) in September of 2005, and I finished my first solo, The Road to Oz, in October 2005.
We produced a total of 30 audiobooks in 2005, and I remember thinking that someday we might reach 100. As I write this we have 3659 completed audiobooks in our catalog — in 29 different languages! Amazing!
More important to me than numbers, impressive though they are, is our community. We have without doubt one of the friendliest forums on the internet. It’s always so pleasant to browse through our working threads and see the cheerful interaction of our volunteers as we all work together, making audiobooks just for the love of it.
You can read a post from Hugh, our founder, here:
http://librivox.org/2010/08/10/librivox-turns-five/
and listen to our amazing 5th Anniversary podcast here:
http://librivox.org/2010/08/10/librivox-community-podcast-114/
Hooray for LibriVox!
Sorry, I’ve been under the weather. Here are the chapters that have posted to the podcast feed recently:
Episode 26: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 8, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 8, Part 2 (8:12)
Episode 27: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 9, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 9, Part 1 (9:36)
Episode 28: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 9, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 9, Part 2 (9:10)
Episode 29: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 10, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 10, Part 1 (9:47)
Episode 30: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 10, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 10, Part 2 (13:00)
Episode 31: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 11, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 11, Part 1 (9:27)
Episode 22: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 6, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 6, Part 2 (6:19)
Episode 23: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 7, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 7, Part 1 (9:49)
Episode 24: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 7, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 7, Part 2 (11:50)
Episode 25: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 8, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 8, Part 1 (9:59)
Henry and I went up on the roof last night to see if any of the fireworks were visible from there. We were able to see about ten different displays going off in the distance! Lots of them were partly obscured by trees, but we had a clear view of several, way off in the distance to the south. That was fun!
On Friday Chloe went with me to the fairgrounds for the Home and Hobby awards ceremony, which was adorable. It’s held in the Turf Club up in the top of the grandstands at the fairground. They serve lemonade and cookies, and the dear sweet Home and Hobby women read off the names of the winners, who then run up to the front and get their certificates. This year they showed pictures of the winning entries on a big screen. We recognized nearly all of the items, so it was fun to know which person made them. I got three certificates — a Best of Division and two Donated Awards, all for the fingerless mittens. Here’s what the room looks like:
And then Chloe and Bob came back to our house and we all watched Toy Story 2 and WALL-E. Great movies.
Oh, yesterday I finished my recording of Through the Looking-Glass. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Alice, but it was still fun. It felt more self-conscious than Alice, and less fresh. Still, a classic! Download it here: http://librivox.org/through-the-looking-glass-by-lewis-carroll-3/ or you can always wait till I push it through my podcast feed in a few weeks.
Episode 21: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 6, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 6, Part 1 (8:40)
Episode 20: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 5, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 5, Part 2 (9:15)
Starting a new audiobook for you today — the third part of This Country of Ours by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, a book of US History stories for kids. If you want to read along and see the pictures, you can buy a lovely thick paperback reprint of this book at mainlesson.com: This Country of Ours.
22 The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers – 00:23:04
Episode 18 of “Kayray Reads to You”: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 4, part 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 4, Part 2 (9:56)
And episode 19: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 5, part 1:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 5, Part 1 (9:20)
11 Who Stole the Tarts? – 00:12:13
12 Alice’s Evidence – 00:13:21
And that’s the end! I’ll start a new book next Monday.
Episode 17 of “Kayray Reads to You”: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 4, part 1
Absolute Zero, Chapter 4, Part 1 (10:25)
Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.
This book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.
Oops, I forgot to post Ch 3 Pt 1, so here are two at once:
Episodes 15 and 16 of “Kayray Reads to You”: Absolute Zero, by Helen Cresswell, Chapter 3, parts 1 and 2:
Absolute Zero, Chapter 3, Part 1 (9:22)
Absolute Zero, Chapter 3, Part 2 (11:55)
Please note: I made these recordings around 2002, and the sound quality is not as good as my more recent recordings. But I hope you will not mind the lower quality too much. You’ll probably be too busy laughing to notice, anyway.
This book is, sadly, out of print in the US. You can find a few used copies on Amazon: Absolute Zero on Amazon. Beware. Every edition after the original 1978 printing has the wrong cover art.
