Storycast

On the run up to Halloween, the kids will be thinking about their Halloween costumes and Storycast will be linking to a few spooky story podcasts narrated by author and reteller of spooky stories from the Spooky Series of books written by S. E. Schlosser.  The first of these podcasts is The Black Cat’s Message from the “Spooky Southwest” book. In this short story Mysterious black cats stalk an old man on his way home from work.

Tags: Ghost Stories, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Spooky

Very few books have evere captured the imagination of both young and old readers and listeners as the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling have done. The publication of each new book has been greeted on the release date by midnight queue’s at the bookstores with people dressed in all sorts of Harry Potter fancy dress.

It may be less known that regular Harry Potter podcasts are available on the internet via PotterCast. Pottercast also occasionally offers free audiobooks.

Tags: Harry Potter, J K Rowling

Pompei is an amazing Roman city that was buried in ash when nearby volcano, Vesuvius erupted on 24th August, A.D. 79 and killing most of the citizens and fantastically preserving their remains and the buildings in ash for later generations to discover via Archaeological excavations which themselves have been going since before US independance. Click Pompei for information and history about the city . 

The book titled “The Last Days of Pompeii“ is a novel written in the mid 19th century and set in the last few days before the eruption of Vesuvius. It is only available in ebook or computer generated audio file format at Project Gutenberg.

Tags: Italy, Pompei, Pompeii, Rome

Click Here for Librivox storycast of The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss.

Read by Mark F. Smith.

The Swiss Family Robinson has delighted generations of readers with its exciting tale of a family which, though shipwrecked, displays “the right stuff” and builds a charming colony that later, they do not want to leave. Cut off from the comforts and companionship of other humans, they use a familiarity with natural history and biology to find the resources and build the tools to construct a canoe, weave cloth, irrigate a garden, and turn an immense hollow tree into a lofty house with a spiral staircase. They domesticate buffaloes, wild asses, and monkeys. They establish farms and plantations. And finally, they have a terrifying encounter with natives from a nearby island.

Johann David Wyss, the author, did not live to complete his tale. Storytellers over the years have injected so many episodes into the various versions that probably none closely match the original. (Indeed, the Baroness de Montholieu expanded the book from two volumes into five when she translated it into French.) This effort was re-translated into English in 1849 by W.H.G. Kingston, abridging the edition severely. It follows the British sensibilities of the period in terms of sentence structure and emphasis. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)

For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer, please visit librivox.org.

Tags: Audiobooks, Johann Wyss, librivox, Swiss Family Robinson

Click Here for Librivox storycast of Huckleberry Finn

Librivox recording of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.

Read by Annie Coleman.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain is one of the truly great American novels, beloved by children, adults, and literary critics alike. The book tells the story of “Huck” Finn (first introduced as Tom Sawyer’s sidekick in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), his friend Jim, and their journey down the Mississippi River on a raft. Both are on the run, Huck from his drunk and abusive father, and Jim as a runaway slave.

As Huck and Jim drift down the river, they meet many colorful characters and have many great adventures. The true heart of the story, however, is the friendship between Huck and Jim. A constant theme throughout the book is Huck’s internal struggle between what he has been taught, that helping a runaway slave is a sin, and what he truly believes, that Jim is a good man and it couldn’t possibly be wrong to help him.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was unique at the time of its publication (1884) because it is narrated by Huck himself and is written in the numerous dialects common in the area and time in which the book is set. Although the book was originally intended as a sequel to the children’s book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, as Twain wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it progressed into a more serious work. Twain’s views on slavery and other social issues of the time become clear through the words, thoughts, and actions of Huck Finn. The book has always been the subject of great controversy, and according to The American Library Association it was fifth on the list of most frequently challenged books in the 1990s.
(Summary by Annie Coleman)

Tags: audiobook, finn, huckleberry, librivox, literature, twain