Showing results by narrator "Joan Walker" in All Categories

Christy Naylor's life is wrenched apart when her mother dies and her father's crazed reaction is to gamble. He wins a fish farm in a game of poker and uproots them from their suburban lives, to live on a couple of watery fields. Unsettled and unsure of himself, Christy is 17, suffocating and suffering.

Full-cast performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the novel.

Little Peter Rabbit, ignoring his mother's warnings, enters the garden of Mr. MacGregor for a snack. When he is spotted by the angry Mr. MacGregor, the chase is on. Before long, Peter loses his jacket and shoes and must also sneak past a cat in order to get back home.

Jack's new best friend Picklewitch is still causing mischief at St Immaculate's School for the Gifted. When she receives a letter from her cousin Archie Cuckoo, telling her he's coming to stay, Jack worries that she'll lose interest in him. But this new cousin turns out to be unexpectedly nice, and it's Picklewitch whose nose is put out of joint.

In "The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan", Ribby, a cat, invites a little dog called Duchess to tea. Duchess accepts the invitation but is anxious that she will be served mouse. When Duchess switches pies in Ribby's oven before tea, confusion ensues.

London, 1930s. Years after she first fled to South Shields, Cathy is known by everyone as the landlady of the Robin Hood pub. But Cathy has a secret from her life before - a daughter, June, whom she had to leave behind. After all these years, can June accept her? Cathy's friend Sofia faces her own dilemma. Encountering a man from her past, Sofia is given the opportunity to return to her hometown, Naples. It would mean escaping her own troubles in the Sixteen Streets... if only she dares take the chance.

He helped you move on... Until you discovered what he did. Louisa Adams has done her best to hold herself together in the years since she lost her husband in a car accident. But each morning she wakes up alone is more painful than the last. She hopes moving into the crumbling seaside guest house her daughter just bought in Devon will help put what’s left of her broken family back together... There, Louisa is offered a final chance to save her career by writing an article on a local sand artist, Isaac.

Ipswich, 1923: After an unlucky start in her first role as a nursemaid, sixteen-year-old Elin Odell looks forward to seeing in the New Year at home. Little does she know, her family is changing and she has no idea what lies ahead. Having been offered the role as governess for the Lamberts in Middlesex, Elin quickly accepts, leaving her own family behind in Ipswich. But when tragedy strikes at her new home, Elin steps up to hold everyone together at the expense of her own happiness.

"Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes" collects Beatrix Potter's delightful original nursery rhymes. The 20th of Beatrix Potter's 22 charming tales of animals in amusing situations, "Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes" has delighted children and adults alike since its release in 1917.

In "The Story of Miss Moppet", a kitten who is teased by a mouse bumps her head on a cupboard. The kitten feigns illness by sitting by the fire and wrapping her head in a duster. Will this ruse be enough to lure the curious mouse?

'I'm good at secrets,' Libby says. Yes, thinks Jessica, I bet you are... Jessica should have everything to make her happy: a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer, hope for a family of her own in the future. Then she meets Libby - flattering, attentive - and believes she has found the friendship she missed out on as a child. Until Jessica catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion. With her life unravelling, Jessica flees home to the seaside town where she grew up.

In "The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse", a woodmouse finds it a challenge to keep a tidy house under a hedge that is visited by an assortment of insects. In this story, a beetle leaves dirty footprints and a spider leaves cobwebs in his wake after visits to Mrs. Tittlemouse's underground tunnel-house.

In "The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes", a squirrel, Timmy, and his wife, Goody, are collecting nuts for the winter. But when a passing flock of birds suspect Timmy of raiding the birds' stores, they stuff him through a hole in a tree. Will Timmy escape? What will Goody do?

n "The Tale of Pigling Bland", an old sow sends away her eight rambunctious children. One of them, Pigling Bland gets lost in the woods and spends the night in a strange chicken-coop. The owner, a farmer named Peter Piperson offers to let Pigling Bland stay at his farm, but Pigling Bland isn't sure that's a good idea. When he meets a beautiful black pig named Pig-Wig, the two make plans to escape.

In The Tale of Two Bad Mice, two mice, upset at learning the food in a dollhouse is fake, go on a vandalism spree. When the little girl who owns the dollhouse sees the destruction, she puts a policeman doll outside the doll house to prevent any more vandalism. To make up for their nefarious deeds, the two mice put a crooked sixpence in the doll's stocking on Christmas Eve and tidy up the house with a dust-pan and broom. The fifth of Beatrix Potter's 22 charming tales of animals in amusing situations, The Tale of Two Bad Mice has delighted children since its release in 1904.

Ramona Koval has been praised as a master of the interview genre, renowned for engaging writers in conversations that are incisive, provocative, and often funny.In this new collection, Speaking Volumes: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, she shares the most fascinating interviews from her 2005 book Tasting Life Twice, along with brand-new ones with some of the most important writers of our times.

Aidan Somerville, Duke of Forster, is a rake, a spy, and a soldier, richer than sin and twice as handsome. Now he is also guardian to his deceased best friend’s young son. The choice makes perfect sense - except that the child’s mother is the lovely Sophia Gardiner, to whom Aidan was engaged before he went off to war.

When Elin receives a letter from her childhood friend Fredrik on the Swedish island of Gotland, memories come flooding back: of a past she has tried to forget and a terrible secret she has shared with nobody—a secret that made her flee the island and never return. Torn between past and present and afraid the truth will destroy her family, Elin sets out on a journey to another continent, but also to another time and another life.

In The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding, Tom Kitten is a young cat who lives with his mother and sisters in a house overrun with rats. When Tom Kitten stumbles into the home of a rat, Samuel Whiskers, and his wife Anna Maria, Tom Kitten faces the unsettling prospect of getting turned into a their dinner pudding.

All is quiet on Eppingham Farm.The sheep that live there chew cude and cauliflower. Sometimes they butt fenceposts-until one day a silvery object falls on their heads.Sal, the Southdown Ewe, knows their great Sheep God must be in danger. 'Only we can save him!' she cries. And so the Quest of the Warrior Sheep begins. But who are the men in the yellow car and why are they following? The Warriors will need to hold on to their fleeces!