Is there anything better than kicking back in the car or on a plane or at home and listening to a great reader bring a story to life? Audiobooks can be so vivid and compelling, whether they are read by a full cast complete with sound effects or are more intimate productions with a single, excellent reader. Perhaps you've already discovered our audiobooks for children and adults, but have you found the Young Adult Books on CD collection yet? If not, you're in for a treat, and if so, you know that there are hundreds of fabulous audio versions of incredible YA books, from non-fiction to classics to contemporary. Find them upstairs in the YA section near the magazines.
If you're a fan of irreverent comedy/social commentary, you will love Libba Bray's
Beauty Queens, and the
audiobook (read by the author) is especially fun. Usually, authors simply cannot compete with the professional actors who bring characters to life in audiobooks, but a few know how to get just the right tone to tell their stories. Bray's reading of her own book is hilarious. In this
Lord of the Flies/pop-culture parody, a plane caring contestants for the Miss Teen Dream pageant crashes on the way to the final competition. The survivors learn to work together as they build structures, hunt for food, accessorize jungle-style, and uncover a corporate conspiracy.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is, in my humble opinion, the best book ever, and the author's reading of it is divinity. Sherman Alexie's pitch-perfect reading will carry you laughing, weeping and hooting triumphantly through the hilarity, tragedy, irony and injustice that is Junior's life.
If Chuck Norris challenged Neil Gaiman to a fight, he would be so stunned by the author's rapier wit that his beard hairs would start to fall out. Then he would beg Neil to let him join one of his dinner parties and Neil would graciously agree, stunning Chuck yet again with his gentility. Then Neil would knock him out with a perfectly executed roundhouse kick to the face. In other words, Gaiman's a genius and his reading of
The Graveyard Book is further proof of his brilliance. OK, Neil, we get it.
You may also love Terry Pratchett's magically hilarious
Wee Free Men, read by Stephen Briggs, Patrick Ness' terrifying
Knife of Never Letting Go, read by Nick Podehl, and Holly Black's fantastical
White Cat read by Jesse Eisenberg. Yes,
that Jesse Eisenberg.
And, as you'll notice from the pictures above, all the cutest author's write teen books. Look at them; they're so adorable!
Did you know that not only do we have English and Spanish books, but we also have a selection of other world languages in the Children's Room? This includes Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Tagalog, Somali, and Vietnamese. The Juvenile World Languages books are located in the last set of shelves parallel with the Picture Books, across from the Early Readers, just behind the Parenting section. We have Board Books, Picture Books, Non-Fiction, Early Readers, and chapter books all shelved within each language area. 
