Brainstorm 207: Which Audible Free Stories Should You Listen to First?

Audible has just announced that they are offering several of their books for free. Click here for where to find them. Here are some I recommend. (And a note of warning, some of the books offered on there are in the middle of a series, so you might want to research that before you start listening and find yourself completely lost.) I’m not going to highlight the classics which you can find on a whole host of platforms for free since they are out of copyright. If I have read the book recently (in the past decade) you can click on the title to see my full review.

Elementary (these are middle grade):

Gail Carson Levine’s Princess Tales
There are several of these available. (If you want to listen to all of them just listen to the one with the cover here, The Fairy’s Return, it’s a combo of all of them.) They are fun short story rewrites of fairy tales.

Target Readers:

• Fairytale Fans, Fantasy Fans, Short Story Fans, Middle Grade Readers

Blastaway by Melissa Landers
This is a scifi adventure featuring a boy who accidentally ran away from home, an orphan girl trying to survive, and a group of people set on blowing up a sun.

Target Readers:

• Scifi Fans, Adventure Fans, Refugee Story Fans, Middle Grade Readers

Shelter Dogs by Peg Kehret
Our physical copy of this book has been well loved. It features true stories of shelter dogs.

Target Readers:

• Dog Lovers, Nonfiction Fans, Middle Grade Readers

Tween (this section is a mix of middle grade and clean young adult):

Wizard for Hire (Wizard for Hire, #1) by Obert Skye
A boy who has grown up alone in the woods has to venture into town for the first time and hires a wizard to help him find his missing parents. But is the wizard really a wizard or not?

Target Readers:

• Mystery Fans, Survival Story Fans, Light Thriller Fans, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
A Mongolian rewrite of lesser known fairytale with plenty of Hale’s own twists and turns. The story is told from the point of view of the maid who was sealed up in the tower with the princess.

Target Readers:

• Fairytale Retelling Fans, Fantasy Fans, Asian Setting Fans, Clean Romance Fans, Young Adult Readers