Children's ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
Classic Bedtime Stories: Volume I
Alison Larkin, Lewis Carroll, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, George MacDonald, Rudyard Kipling & Beatrix Potter · 2024
🎙 Narrated by Alison Larkin and Virginia McKenna, OBE
83/100
👍 Worth It
Five bona fide classics — Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, The Princess and the Goblin, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and Peter Rabbit — read by two genuinely accomplished narrators, and this is the rare one in the batch AudioFile Magazine actually singled out for praise. Alison Larkin got called "a narrator to seek out" and Virginia McKenna "wonderfully expressive," and honestly the narration is the reason to pick this one. A well-curated, professionally produced set that earns its spot on the shelf.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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🎙 Narration: excellent AudioFile Magazine praised Alison Larkin as "unparalleled — a narrator to seek out" and Virginia McKenna as "wonderfully expressive" — real critical corroboration, not just publisher copy.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety85
Substance / usefulness78
Craft & writing82
Originality55
Evidence & accuracy75
Hype vs delivers65
Age-fit82
Human-eye read75
Penny’s verdict83
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