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The Great War: Stories Inspired by Items from the First World War Audiobook
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Publisher Description
In a powerful collection, eleven internationally acclaimed fiction writers draw on personal objects to bring the First World War to life for listeners of all ages.
A toy soldier. A butter dish. A compass. Mundane objects, perhaps, but to the remarkable authors in this collection, artifacts such as these have inspired stories that go to the heart of the human experience of World War I. Each author was invited to choose an object that had a connection to the war—a writing kit for David Almond, a helmet for Michael Morpurgo—and use it as the inspiration for an original short story. What results is an extraordinary collection, illustrated throughout by the award-winning Jim Kay and featuring photographs of the objects with accounts of their history and the authors' reasons for selecting them. A blend of fiction and real-life events, this unique anthology provides young readers with a personal window into the Great War and the people affected by it, and serves as an invaulable resource for families and teachers alike.Download and start listening now!
“Physical items from WWI inspired this collection of eleven short stories, but no visuals are necessary to bring these powerful generation-spanning tales to life. The listener will recognize the accents of Scots, Aussies, African-American, French, Irish, and English characters as six different narrators (one per story) reveal uniquely personal tolls of war through the eyes of soldiers, siblings, children, families, and young workers. After each fictional story, a narrator briskly describes the actual item that inspired it, for example, a helmet, compass, or butter dish…Listeners will also be greatly affected by these compelling stories of loss, luck, patriotism, and perseverance at war and at home.”
— AudioFile
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“A stunning anthology of stories.”
— WRD magazine -
“Eleven authors mark the centenary of WWI with original short stories that are simultaneously poignant, thought-provoking, and relevant.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“The stories…say something profound about memory and loss and what it means to wage war…Each story, lovingly crafted, shows a different facet of war in the same way that each artifact reflects something different about the time…Extraordinary.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“[A] superlative collection…beautifully written.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“As there are no living World War I veterans to tell their stories, this profound collection may be as close as some readers will get to truly understanding the emotional devastation of one of the world’s bloodiest wars.”
— School Library Journal -
“Readers will likely discover resonant offerings among this collection.”
— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
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About the Authors
Tanya Lee Stone is an award-winning author of books for kids and teens. Stone went to performing arts high school in New Haven, CT and went on to major in English at Oberlin College and study voice at Oberlin Conservatory. After graduation she moved to New York and became an editor. Stone was an editor for more than a dozen years and has a masters degree in science education. She teaches writing for children at Champlain College.
Marcus Sedgwick, born and raised in East Kent, England, is a widely admired, prizewinning author of fiction for young adults. He won the Branford Boase Award for his debut novel, Floodland, the Booktrust Teenage Prize for My Swordhand Is Singing, and the 2014 Michael L. Printz Award for Midwinterblood. His books have been short-listed for over thirty awards, including five times for the Carnegie Medal, twice for the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and four times for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. He teaches creative writing at the Arvon Foundation in England and at Ty Newydd in Wales. He divides his time between a village near Cambridge, England, and a house in the French Alps.
David Almond has received several major awards, including a Hans Christian Andersen Award, a Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Awards, an Eleanor Farjeon Award, and a Michael L. Printz Award. He is known worldwide as the author of Skellig, Clay, and many other plays, stories, and novels, including The Boy Who Swam with Piranha. David Almond lives in England.
Michael Morpurgo, former Children’s Laureate of Britain, is the author of War Horse, called “superb” by the New York Times Book Review and now a major motion picture. He was knighted in 2018 for services to literature and charity. His writing has won numerous award, including the Whitbread Children’s Book Award, the California Young Reader Medal, the Red House Children’s Book Award, and France’s Prix Sorcieres, among others and others. He lives in Devon, England, with his wife, Clare. Together they founded the charity Farms for City Children, which gives children from urban areas an opportunity to spend a week working on a farm in the countryside.
John Boyne is the author of novels for adults and children. His New York Times bestseller, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, won two Irish Book Awards, was short-listed for the British Book Award, and was made into an award-winning feature film. His novels are published in more than forty languages.
A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards, including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She is a part-time lecturer in creative writing at the University of Warwick.
Marcus Sedgwick is the author of ten previous novels for young readers. His first, Floodland, won the 1994 Branford-Boase Award for Best First Children’s Novel of the Year; he has since been shortlisted for numerous children’s book awards, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Prize, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award. He lives in Sussex, England.
Adèle Geras is the celebrated author of many stories and novels, including The Tower Room, Watching the Roses, and Pictures of the Night. She lives in Manchester, England.
Tracy Chevalier is the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has been translated into forty-three languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film. A Single Thread was named a Best Book of the Year by Time, USA Today, and seven other media.
Frank Cottrell Boyce is the author of Framed, Cosmic, the new Chitty Chitty Bang Bang novels, and Millions, which was made into a movie by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. He is also a successful writer of film scripts and, along with Danny Boyle, devised the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics.
Sheena Wilkinson has been established as one of Ireland’s most acclaimed writers for young people. Her first novel, Taking Flight, won the CBI Honour Award for Fiction as well as the Children’s Choice Award. It also won a White Raven award from the International Youth Library and a place on the IBBY Honour List. Its sequel, Grounded, also won the CBI Children’s Choice award as well as the overall Book of the Year. Wilkinson lives in County Down, Ireland, and travels extensively in Ireland and beyond.
Ursula Dubosarsky is the Australian children’s laureate. She is the author of over sixty books for children and young adults, and her work is published all over the world. She has won several national literary awards and internationally she has been nominated for both the Hans Christian Andersen award and the Astrid Lindgren prize. Her Brindabella was shortlisted for the 2019 CBCA Awards.
Timothée de Fombelle is a much-admired French playwright. His children’s book Toby Alone is highly acclaimed in France and has won numerous awards.
Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. He attended UCLA and spent ten years in a traveling Shakespeare company. Passionate about the spoken word, he has narrated a wide variety of audiobooks. winning won more than fifty AudioFile Earphones Awards and several of the prestigious Audie Awards. He was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine and the Voice of Choice for 2016 by Booklist magazine.
About the Narrators
Nick Podehl is a professional voice actor. He has narrated numerous audiobooks, many of which have won prestigious awards, including fourteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. He currently lives and works around Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife.
Sarah Coomes trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and spent three blissful years there, learning how to cry, speak Shakespeare, and stage fight like a tiger. She is a comedienne and an actress, appearing in numerous television shows in England, including a recurring role as Nurse Leonard in the popular series EastEnders. She won the 2008 Westminster Prize for her play Hookie and an AudioFile Earphones Award for her narration of The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce in 2011.
JD Jackson is a theater professor, aspiring stage director, and award-winning audiobook narrator. He is a classically trained actor, and his television and film credits include roles on House, ER, Law & Order, Hack, Sherrybaby, Diary of a City Priest, and Lucky Number Slevin. He is the recipient of more than a dozen Earphones Awards for narration and an Odyssey Honor for G. Neri’s Ghetto Cowboy, and he was also named one of AudioFile magazine’s Best Voices of the Year for 2012 and 2013. An adjunct professor at Los Angeles Southwest College, he has an MFA in theater from Temple University.
Nico Evers-Swindell is a New Zealand film, television, and voice actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Prince William in the 2011 film William and Kate. Other acting credits include the film Edge of Darkness and appearances in episodes of Law & Order.
Gerard Doyle, a seasoned audio narrator, he has been awarded dozens of AudioFile Earphones Awards, was named a Best Voice in Young Adult Fiction in 2008, and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He was born of Irish parents and raised and educated in England. In Great Britain he has enjoyed an extensive career in both television and repertory theater and toured nationally and internationally with the English Shakespeare Company. He has appeared in London’s West End in the gritty musical The Hired Man. In America he has appeared on Broadway in The Weir and on television in New York Undercover and Law & Order. He has taught drama at Ross School for the several years.
Richard Halverson is an actor and producer, known for The Wheel, Mirror, and Anonymous. His audiobook narration has earned an AudioFile Earphones Award.
Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.