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Swallows and Amazons
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
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Publisher's summary
We attribute their success to two facts: first, Ransome is a great storyteller and, second, he clearly writes from first-hand experience. Independence and initiative are qualities any child can understand, and every volume in this collection celebrates these virtues.
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95% verbatim Robinson Crusoe
- By La suede on 07-20-18
By: Peter Clines
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Islands in the Stream
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Bruce Greenwood
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1970, nine years after Hemingway's death, this is the story of an artist and adventurer, a man much like Hemingway himself. Beginning in the 1930s, Islands in the Stream follows the fortunes of Thomas Hudson, from his experiences as a painter on the Gulf Stream island of Bimini through his antisubmarine activities off the coast of Cuba during World War II. Hemingway is at his mature best in this beguiling tale.
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Hemingway was a Genius
- By Ian on 08-04-06
By: Ernest Hemingway
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The Summer Book
- By: Tove Jansson, Thomas Teal - translator
- Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Summer Book Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer - its sunlight and storms - into 22 crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia's grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent.
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GORGEOUS. FULL OF GRACE. NEEDED THIS.
- By Annie Armstrong on 04-14-22
By: Tove Jansson, and others
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Five Weeks in a Balloon
- By: Jules Verne, Frederick Paul Walter - translator
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Initially published in 1863, Five Weeks in a Balloon was the first novel in what would become the author's Extraordinary Voyages series. It tells the tale of a 4,000-mile balloon trip over the mysterious continent of Africa, a trip that wouldn't actually take place until well into the next century. Fusing adventure, comedy, and science fiction, Five Weeks has all the key ingredients of classic Verne: sly humor and cheeky characters, an innovative scientific invention, a tangled plot that's full of suspense and surprise, and visions of an unknown realm.
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A grand adventure
- By Tad Davis on 01-19-20
By: Jules Verne, and others
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Jules Verne Collection
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days and The Mysterious Island
- By: Jules Verne
- Narrated by: Jim D. Johnston
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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From the pen of one of the literary world’s finest explorers of the imagination, these classic tales of fantastical habitats and intrepid adventurers delve deep into every mysterious corner of planet Earth. Whether you’ve adventured with Verne before or are only just setting off on your maiden voyage, this collection encompasses the most extraordinary adventures the father of science fiction has to offer.
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Classics, But Hours of Scientific Exposition.
- By Sarah on 05-02-21
By: Jules Verne
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Blood on the Blade
- New World, Book 1
- By: Griff Hosker
- Narrated by: Marston York
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Erik and his family are Norse who live on the island of Orkneyjar. Their world is thrown upside down when the King of Norway colludes with their jarl to take over their home. They flee to the land north of Mercia. Hoping for a life free from the tyranny of a King, they have to fight Danes and Saxons. When King Harald of Norway sends ships to destroy them, the Clan of the Fox is forced to flee to the newly discovered land of ice and fire. They travel beyond sight of land into an uncharted ocean to face a future which is uncertain.
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EPIC!
- By Damon Edwards on 10-11-19
By: Griff Hosker
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Over the Woodward Wall
- By: A. Deborah Baker
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning to the way he completes his homework - without complaint, without fuss, without prompt. Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable. They live on the same street. They live in different worlds.
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Intriguing story! I recommend!
- By Smasher277 on 11-23-20
By: A. Deborah Baker
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The Toilers of the Sea
- By: Victor Hugo
- Narrated by: Patrick Dickson
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Victor Hugo wrote this wonderful story while living in exile on the island of Guernsey, which is where the adventure unfolds. Set in the early 1800s, The Toilers of the Sea tells off a young reclusive fisherman who falls dangerously in love with a beautiful island girl. Her uncle, himself an intrepid seafarer, is the owner of a paddle-steamer, which plies its trade to and from St. Malo on the coast of Brittany.
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Interesting, could without the special effects
- By Louise on 07-21-16
By: Victor Hugo
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cute and sweet
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This IS COMPLETE
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Mama and her two young daughters, Szerena and Gisella, never thought they would be without Papa for five long years. Ever since he left their small farm in Czechoslovakia for America, they have been waiting for him to send for them. In the meantime, with the help of family and neighbors, Mama and the girls work on the farm. While Szerena wishes for "a papa like everyone else," Gisella can't remember their father, and wishes he had not gone away without them.
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Understood Betsy
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Like a picnic on a warm spring day
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Excellent for children and adults
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Wonderful story about family life.
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cute and sweet
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This IS COMPLETE
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A Papa Like Everyone Else
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Mama and her two young daughters, Szerena and Gisella, never thought they would be without Papa for five long years. Ever since he left their small farm in Czechoslovakia for America, they have been waiting for him to send for them. In the meantime, with the help of family and neighbors, Mama and the girls work on the farm. While Szerena wishes for "a papa like everyone else," Gisella can't remember their father, and wishes he had not gone away without them.
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Love all Eleanor Estes books, hate this performanc
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The Moody family moves from New Hampshire to a Colorado ranch. Experience the pleasures and perils of ranching in 20th Century America, through the eyes of a youngster.
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Very dissappointed , too much cussing.
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Plucky Kids in the English Civil War
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Adventures with Waffles
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Hardly a day passes without Trille and Lena inventing some kind of adventure that often ends in trouble. Whether it's coaxing a cow onto a boat or tobogganing down the steepest and iciest hill with a chicken, there is always a thrill - and sometimes an injury - to be had. Trille loves to share everything with Lena, even Auntie Granny's waffles, which make everything just perfect. But when Lena has to move away, and Auntie Granny leaves the world, it sometimes seems nothing will ever be right again.
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very fun!
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12-year-old Aidan Errolson, comes from a long line of adventurers. His grandparents were among the first settlers of Corenwald's Eastern Frontier. His father had been one of the kingdom's greatest warriors. Aidan, on the other hand, lives the quiet, comfortable life, of a nobleman's son. He never has any real adventures, and that, he believes, is the one great injustice of his otherwise happy life. All that will change the day he first hears the bark of the bog owl, and meets Dobro Turtlebane.
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Our Family's New Favorite!
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Great Summer Read
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Parables from Nature, Complete Set
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Entertaining stories of nature with a moral lesson thrown in for good measure are fun as well as thought provoking. Children will be enthralled with the intimate look into the lives of the woodland creatures and their way of life. Subtleness in making a moral point is always a strength in Ms. Gatty’s stories.
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This acclaimed story of World War II is rich in suspense, characterization, plot, and spiritual truth. Every element of occupied Holland is united in a story of courage and hope: a hidden Jewish child, an underdiver, a downed RAF pilot, an imaginative, daring underground hero, and the small things of family life which surprisingly carry on in the midst of oppression.
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Thoughtful story w/ excellent narration
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Homer Price
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Welcome to Centerburg! Where you can win a hundred dollars by eating all the doughnuts you want; where houses are built in a day; and where a boy named Homer Price can foil four slick bandits using nothing but his wits and pet skunk. The comic genius of Robert McCloskey and his wry look at small-town America has kept readers and listeners in stitches for generations!
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great family audiobook!
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Henry and the Chalk Dragon
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- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In the town of Squashbuckle, just about anything can happen, and when Henry Penwhistle draws a mighty Chalk Dragon on his door, the dragon does what Henry least expects - it runs away. Now Henry's art is out in the world for everyone to see, and it's causing trouble for him and his schoolmates Oscar and Jade. If they don't stop it, the entire town could be doomed! To vanquish the threat of a rampaging Chalk Dragon, Sir Henry Penwhistle, Knight of La Muncha Elementary School, is going to have to do more than just catch his art - he's going to have to let his imagination run wild.
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Cute story...awful narration
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What listeners say about Swallows and Amazons
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jefferson
- 02-05-11
Idyllic, Funny, Vivid Childhood Adventure-Play
This is an utterly charming audiobook! Arthur Ransome's story about the four Walker siblings ("Able Seaman" Titty being my favorite!) and the two "Amazon Pirate" girls and their idyllic adventures during a perfect August in 1929 sailing around a big lake in the Lake District and camping on Wild Cat Island in it is vividly, humorously, winningly told. Ransome is so good at capturing how kids play, with one half of their minds and hearts in fantasyland (pirates, explorers, the Pacific ocean, sharks, buried treasure, sea battles, walking the plank, deserted islands, etc.) and one half in the real world (making safe fires, cleaning fish and pots and pans, teaching a younger sibling how to swim, managing sailboats efficiently, etc.). He's so good at depicting how their thoughts and imaginations and hearts work! And his girls, especially Titty and Nancy, are at least as imaginative, bold, wild, and strong as the boys.
I cringed at first when I heard the kids referring to the "natives" (locals) from the standpoint, I thought, of "civilized white explorers," but then it turned out to be their way of signifying killjoy adults who are too serious to enter into the kids' fantasy world and became a complex and interesting use of language.
The reader, Alison Larkin, is perfectly suited to the book. She speaks clearly, thoroughly understands and feels what she's reading, slightly varies her voice for the different characters (from Ship's Boy Roger to Captain Flint), and speaks with infectious good humor and spirit, so that listening to Ransome's delightful text becomes a big smiling and chuckling pleasure.
The book is also surprisingly moving (without being at all sentimental), as when, near the end, Mrs. Dixon, the local farm woman who has been supplying the kids with fresh milk every morning, says she'll miss them after they leave the lake the next day, and Titty says, "But we'll be back next year and every year after that for ever and ever," and Mrs. Dixon replies, "Aye
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27 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Annette
- 01-17-09
This book is a treat!
What a marvelous book this is! Listening to Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" made me nostalgic for a childhood I didn't even have... Children are sure to find the book delightful, as the characters are very appealing and their resourcefulness quite inspiring. Alison Larkin's narration is pitch-perfect. Each character has his or her own, distinctive "voice," and Larkin does a beautiful job of making the adventure very real. I'm looking forward with great anticipation to reading the other books in the series.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Lisa
- 08-23-12
Innocent story, innocent adventure
Published in 1930, this is a lovely example of the adventure story of days long past. Children who hardly quarrel live in a world safe enough to camp alone on an island, have a brief but friendly war with some other neighborhood children, and reveal the truth about a vandalism incident to a grumpy old man. It's a lovely idyl. Some of the old-fashioned language, as well as the nautical terms, my confuse younger children, but the overall level is from about 7 (with adult help perhaps) to 11 years old. It's a nice listen, just don't spend time waiting for it to turn dark and 21st century young adult. It never does. The summer ends and a sequel follows.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Jefferson
- 02-05-11
Idyllic, Funny, Vivid Childhood Adventure-Play
This is an utterly charming audiobook! Arthur Ransome's story about the four Walker siblings ("Able Seaman" Titty being my favorite!) and the two "Amazon Pirate" girls and their idyllic adventures during a perfect August in 1929 sailing around a big lake in the Lake District and camping on Wild Cat Island in it is vividly, humorously, winningly told. Ransome is so good at capturing how kids play, with one half of their minds and hearts in fantasyland (pirates, explorers, the Pacific ocean, sharks, buried treasure, sea battles, walking the plank, deserted islands, etc.) and one half in the real world (making safe fires, cleaning fish and pots and pans, teaching a younger sibling how to swim, managing sailboats efficiently, etc.). He's so good at depicting how their thoughts and imaginations and hearts work! And his girls, especially Titty and Nancy, are at least as imaginative, bold, wild, and strong as the boys.
I cringed at first when I heard the kids referring to the "natives" (locals) from the standpoint, I thought, of "civilized white explorers," but then it turned out to be their way of signifying killjoy adults who are too serious to enter into the kids' fantasy world and became a complex and interesting use of language.
The reader, Alison Larkin, is perfectly suited to the book. She speaks clearly, thoroughly understands and feels what she's reading, slightly varies her voice for the different characters (from Ship's Boy Roger to Captain Flint), and speaks with infectious good humor and spirit, so that listening to Ransome's delightful text becomes a big smiling and chuckling pleasure.
The book is also surprisingly moving (without being at all sentimental), as when, near the end, Mrs. Dixon, the local farm woman who has been supplying the kids with fresh milk every morning, says she'll miss them after they leave the lake the next day, and Titty says, "But we'll be back next year and every year after that for ever and ever," and Mrs. Dixon replies, "Aye
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Christine
- 10-30-09
An Absolute Delight
My 8 year-old-daughter and I absolutely loved this book, and the narration was superb! It's a classic adventure story of tremendous imagination and good-hearted humor that will make you glad to be alive. Marvelously entertaining and inspiring, and wholesome without being cloying. The Britishisms can all be deciphered in context and provide an opportunity for some fun discussions of American versus British English. My daughter and I enjoyed this on long rides, to the point of not wanting to get out of the car when we'd arrived at our destination. Parents, you will be reminded exactly what children value and how to be a kindred spirit to your children, and kids will meet likeable role models whose earnest explorations will embolden their hearts. Not to be missed! We are continuing on with the whole series. Absolutely love the narrator, as well!
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Greg Edwards
- 03-03-09
Swallows and Amazons
I have read this series since I was a child. The reading met all of my expectations. I greatly enjoyed hearing this reading of Swallows and Amazons and I hope Audible does the whole series. It was particularly fun to listen to as I was biking along the Pacific coast while listening. The Swallows and Amazons were exploring the lake and I was also out in a similar area. This added something to just reading at home, making the audible book better than a physical book.
One of the best children's series of all time.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Bruce R Weller
- 08-13-16
Great writing! Great reading!
Great writing! Great reading! Loved it! If you love sailing or adventure, read it. The characters are interesting and the setting is fun.
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- jen davenport
- 03-07-18
Most monotonous children’s book ever
I’m really surprised I have heard so many favorable things about this book. I can’t believe what a long, monotonous drag it was. This was a test of endurance for my children and myself to get through. Part of the trouble, I discovered about halfway through, is that I just am not interested in entire books where children are playing make-believe. If it’s a fantasy story, fine. But I just can’t get interested in a story about a group of kids pretending they are sailors and the people around them are savages, pirates, or natives.
But, as I said, that is just part of the problem. Every minuscule, minute, minutia detail of what the children do is described in the most lengthy narrative that goes on and on and on. After each hour of listening, my kids and I expected and hoped that a bit of plot would develop, but sadly, no. No actual plot of any interest takes place. If this were not bad enough, the children’s baby sister is constantly referred to as, “Fat Vicky.” And, one of the children is actually named “Titty.”
The narrator made every painstaking detail in the story sound as if it was the most interesting information in the world. Sadly, this did nothing but help to exaggerate how mundane and inane each detail in this story is, as well as making us feel talked down to and patronized, as if we were three years old.
My children were enchanted by the idea of sailing to an island and camping on their own during the summer, which is what the children do in the story. However, this intriguing idea was not nearly enough to overcome the inherent flaws of the book that made even such an exciting prospect drag on. And on. And on. And on.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Hiroaki. K
- 11-08-08
mmm
I have loved this book since when I was a child, and have had the imaginary voice of a "man" instead of woman narrator.
It is ok the narrator is a woman, but to me, the voice and how she read it killed the atmosphere of each scene, making it a mere children's fishing holiday than an adventure.
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- John Gardner
- 09-23-19
I adore this book
I've read it, and now listened to it, and both experiences were wonderful. Arthur Ransome penned a brilliant and thoroughly engrossing exposition on the power of childhood imagination, and the value of wilderness.
Alison Larkin has done superbly in bringing the children's experiences to life. Three cheers!
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