Showing results by narrator "Elise Arsenault" in All Categories

Two days after arriving in Iceland for a promotional trip, Instagram influencer Alabama Wood goes missing. With no leads, the Icelandic police start their investigation by focusing on the two influencers seemingly closest to Alabama on the trip: Celeste Reed, Alabama’s best friend of ten years, and Hollie Goodwin, fitness guru and Alabama's unwilling idol.

Recent media stories about education have featured the "Science of Reading," whose proponents typically present the systematic teaching of phonics as a one-size-fits-all method that guarantees reading success for all students. But as literacy scholars Patricia Paugh and Deborah MacPhee demonstrate, the decoding of words is only one of many skills that are central to an effective early literacy education.

Linda Scarpa had the best toys, the nicest clothes, and a close-knit family. Yet her childhood was far from idyllic. Classmates avoided her; boys wouldn't date her. Eventually she learned why: They were afraid of her father. A made man in the Colombo crime family, Gregory Scarpa, Sr., was a stone-cold killer nicknamed the "Grim Reaper." Unlike most tight-lipped mobsters, Scarpa talked business - and murder - in front of his kids.

December in Savannah, Georgia, is a sight to behold. Twin sisters Tabby and Sage Winslow are busier than ever setting up for the big celebration. But that isn’t the only thing on the sisters’ minds. Both Sage and her fellow employee Mary Nicole are vying for the sought-after assistant-manager job at the plant nursery. But when Loren Lee, their boss, is found dead and Sage becomes the police’s favorite suspect, both Winslow girls know that they’ll need more than a flicker of magic and their sisterhood to solve the murder and clear Sage’s name.

After landing her dream job as an assistant buyer for a luxury fashion retailer in Minneapolis, Taylor Hartigan's life becomes a nightmare. Performing mundane tasks and catering to the ridiculous whims of the boss from hell, she sees no opportunity for advancement. Though she's never quit anything in her life, Taylor walks out and heads home to Chicago, the city that holds her heart. With her confidence shaken and no job on the horizon, she knows she has to find herself again.

When a traveling show of impressionist art comes to Nags Head, North Carolina, librarian Lucy and the staff at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library are inspired to create an educational display about art history. Their launch of the display is a huge success, but the morning after, they discover that a reproduction of a famous painting has gone missing. No one knows why anyone would bother stealing it: the picture is of no value—the real, priceless painting is under lock and key at the art show itself.

Chicago event planner Collins Brady knows how to make the magic happen for her clients. In her mind, she adds the sparkle that makes everything shine. If only she had that same sparkle in her personal life. While she's good at her job, her true career dreams lie elsewhere. If she could do anything, it would be to become an equestrian riding instructor. That dream, however, is shelved due to practicality. And that's not the only thing Collins has shelved.