Skip to main content

Five Faves: Audio Books for Older Elementary School Kids

Recently I have posted some of my favorite audio books for Younger Elementary School Kids and Elementary School Kids. But don’t you all worry—I also have some new favorite audio books for Older Elementary School Kids. These are the audio books that sometimes deal with a bit more complexity in the plot or characters. Or perhaps there are some themes that need an older kid to completely understand. But nonetheless, they are all great books that will leave readers thinking long after the audio goes quiet. Enjoy! 

Written by Adrianna Cuevas 
Narrated By Anthony Rey Perez 
Dreamscape Media, LLC, 2021. Duration: 05:43:41 

Cumba is a 12-year-old who lives in Cuba in 1961. Cumba’s parents decide it isn’t safe to continue to live in Cuba since Castro might start requiring kids or teenagers to join the military, so they send him to live in Miami. However, living away from all his family in a new country and trying to learn a new language leaves Cumba feeling homesick and lonely. 

Written by Donna Barba Higuera 
Narrated by Frankie Corzo 
Recorded Books, LLC, 2021. Duration: 08:38:24 

In this sci-fi adventure, Petra and her family board a space ship that is leaving Earth due to the impending doom of a comet about to hit our planet. Petra’s family and others are put into a sleep state where she won’t age or grow with the intent on waking up decades later to populate a new planet. Only, when Petra wakes hundreds of years later, she finds that The Collective has taken over the ship and now Petra is the only one who remembers Earth and what was supposed to happen. 

Written by Phil Stamper 
Narrated by Vikas Adam 
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2022. Duration: 05:29:48 

Jake is the only openly gay kid in his school. And Jake’s parents want to support him. When Jake’s dad decides to fly a pride flag on their flagpole at their house, it causes the town to start making rules as to what can or can’t happen—such as no Pride Parades. Only Jake doesn’t think a Pride Parade is a bad idea—since that type of parade is just about bringing people together. Now Jake must decide what he wants to do in his small town that seems to not want to accept him. 

Written by Varsha Bajaj 
Narrated By Reena Dutt 
Books on Tape | Listening Library, 2022. Duration: 04:13:07 

Minni lives in Mumbai—in the poorest part, where water is hard to come by and life is full of unfair circumstances. When Minni starts to look closer at why the rich parts of the city always have enough clean water (enough for swimming pools and water coming out of every faucet) and why her area of town only has water available at certain times (with less and less water available every day), Minni discovers that some people will do anything to steal from the poor to make the rich richer. 

Written by Anne Ursu 
Narrated By Elise Arsenault 
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2021. Duration: 09:47:41 

Marya grew up in a world where everyone thought that her brother Luka would one day become a sorcerer and would make her family money. When Luka doesn’t become a sorcerer’s apprentice and Marya may be the reason he lost his chance, she is sent to Dragomir Academy—a place where other girls who have made trouble (of one sort or another) have been sent. Only, Marya realizes that things aren’t always as they seem and she and her friends aren’t just wayward girls who ruin everything.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...