Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Winter has come to the mountain once again. But instead of being snowed in on the mountain pasture and unable to go anywhere, Heidi and Grandfather have moved to the Hamlet. In the little town of Dörfli, Heidi goes to school, teaches the reluctant Peter how to read, and enjoys th…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Who is Heidi waiting for? Goat Peter wants Heidi to come with him to the high pastures, but she is waiting for some special, long-awaited visitors. She is so happy when the doctor arrives to stay for a while. He is sad and despondent, but just being around Heidi helps him regain …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Finally back in her mountain home so dear, Heidi has to visit Grandmother, and go out to the pasture with the goats, and listen to the music of the wind in the fir trees. But most of all, she enjoys spending time with Grandfather, who has also been deeply affected by all that Hei…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. The mystery of the Sesemann ghost has been solved, and without delay, in order to save her life, Heidi is allowed to go back up to her beloved mountain meadow with Grandfather and the goats, and Grandmother, and Goat Peter! When has a homecoming ever been so joyful, and the sound…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. After a wonderful, long visit, Grandmama Sesemann has to go back to her own house. Heidi and Clara miss her, but soon there is something to distract everyone from her departure. The Sesemann house is haunted! Every morning the front door is found to stand open, even though it has…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When Mr. Sesemann returned from his trip to Paris, he discovered how much his little daughter, Clara, was devoted to her young companion. Heidi may have caused a bit of upheaval in the household, but she is full of kindness and consideration as well. And she found another loving …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Poor Miss Rottenmeier! She thought her idea of bringing a companion for Clara Sesemann would give her some relief from the hard work of caring for the girl. But now that Heidi has arrived, life is more surprising and disorganized that she ever would have believed. Heidi, on the o…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When the village schoolmaster sends word that he expects Meadow Nuncle to send Heidi down to school, Nuncle has other ideas. Even the pastor comes to reason with him, but Nuncle is obstinate. Heidi will stay as free and happy as the little birds and the goats. But then Aunt Dete …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Let’s go with Heidi as she accompanies Goat Peter to the high mountain pastures with the herd of jumping, bleating, engaging animals. Heidi soon learns each goat’s name and little characteristics. She has never been so happy in her life, and when the sun begins to go down and col…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here are the first two chapters of the enchanting story of Heidi, the little Swiss girl who is taken to live with her grandfather in a tiny cottage in the Alps. In these chapters you will hear how Heidi is taken up to Meadow Nuncle’s house by her Auntie Dete—and left there with h…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Now we are reaching the end of the tales of King Arthur and his Knights. But even though today’s selections end with the passing of King Arthur, you can find many more tales of chivalry and bravery and even other legends of King Arthur in the public library. Today we will hear ab…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Finally, the time has arrived for the Seat Perilous to be filled! Sir Bors, who is a very valiant and virtuous knight, is granted a special vision in which he sees the knight who will fill the seat, although when Sir Bors sees him, he is still a tiny baby. King Arthur also has so…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Lynette, a beautiful but very proud and haughty maiden, begs for King Arthur to send his very best knight to rescue her sister from the clutches of four evil knights. She insists that Sir Lancelot be the one to help. King Arthur, however, has another idea as a different, but stil…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When another white stag appears, the court of King Arthur again sets off in pursuit of high adventure. This time, the quest comes to Sir Geraint, who defends the honor of the queen. Then we learn about Sir Lancelot of the Lake, who lived an idyllic childhood in Fairyland before b…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here are the adventures of two noble knights and one of King Arthur’s young cousins: a foundling prince. Sir Gawain and Sir Tristram both find the lady of their dreams, and oh, the amazing, magical, and astounding adventures that King Arthur and his knights undertake in order to …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are radiantly happy at their castle in Camelot. Almost every seat is filled at the Round Table, and very soon after the knights have made their solemn vows, their words are put to the test when a lovely maiden in distress appears in the great hall.…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. In these selections of King Arthur and His Knights, you will learn about how Merlin built the Round Table, where King Arthur received the amazing sword, Excalibur, and how he met and fell in love with the beautiful and charming Guinevere. Now sit back, relax, and listen to this s…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. There are many, many versions of the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Some of these legends were written down more than 500 years ago in about the year 1470 by Sir Thomas Malory, who put them into a book he called Le Morte D’Arthur, or The Death of Arthu…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When Jimmy Bean plucks the first spring weeds from the flower bed under an open window at John Pendleton’s house, he overhears some information that may make all the difference for Pollyanna and her future. But can other people overcome their pride and stubbornness to allow the p…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. It is easy to play the Just Be Glad Game when everything is going well. It’s a little harder, but, according to Pollyanna, even more fun when it’s hard to think of something to be glad about. But what happens when the most terrible thing of all comes to pass and an exuberant and …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Could Aunt Polly really be softening toward her loving niece, Pollyanna? Nancy thinks so, because Aunt Polly sent her out with an umbrella because she was afraid Pollyanna would be caught by a thunderstorm. And now Pollyanna is beginning to see the tenderness with her own eyes! S…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Do you remember that old Tom the gardener once mentioned to Nancy that long years ago Aunt Polly had quarreled with a lover? From watching the way Mr. Pendleton has softened under Pollyanna’s sweet friendship, Nancy has decided that the old lover was Mr. Pendleton! She tells Poll…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When Pollyanna walks back home after her unsuccessful meeting with the Beldingsville Ladies Aid, she takes a path through Pendleton Woods. Here she finds Mr. Pendleton who has fallen and broken his leg! Her resourcefulness brings him relief, and soon Pollyanna becomes acquainted …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Pollyanna has a big heart. She finds something about just about everything in her world to love, from a scraggly kitten to a stray dog, and even to a little homeless boy. And she is already winning the hearts of those around her, including Mrs. Snow and, of course, dear Nancy. Th…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. What an extraordinary child! That is the reaction Aunt Polly, and in fact, many of the residents of Beldingsville seem to exclaim when they make Pollyanna’s acquaintance. Not only does Pollyanna not realize when she is being punished, for example, but she takes the punishment as …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. In 1913, American author Eleanor H. Porter’s most famous book, Pollyanna, was published. Here is the delightful story of eleven-year-old Pollyanna (named after her mother’s two sisters). When Pollyanna’s beloved father dies, Pollyanna is sent to the town of Beldingsville, Vermont…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. How discouraging it is for the Hardy boys. They really want to locate the stolen loot and clear the good name of Mr. Robinson, but where could it be? Like the active boys they are, they decide to take a ride along the railway on their motorcycles, just to take a break from the wh…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. It seems the Tower Mansion theft will soon be wrapped up! The boys’ clever strategy to foil the incompetent Chief Collig and Inspector Smuff’s plan to question Jackley gave Mr. Hardy the chance he needed to hear Jackley’s dying confession. The criminal’s last whispered words dire…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Having found the red wig hidden in the bushes, Frank and Joe are sure the identity of the car thief will soon be discovered. They have a hunch that perhaps that criminal is the same one who perpetrated the Tower Mansion robbery, and if it is, then Slim Robinson will be able to co…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. The Hardy boys, Joe and Frank, are very busy in today’s episode. They are determined to learn the skills of detective work that their father uses every day, so they begin by trying to observe the things around them very carefully, including some peculiar tire tracks Joe notices i…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here is the first of the many adventures of the Hardy boys, a series of books that is, in many ways, a companion series to the Nancy Drew books! For one thing, both series of books were produced by the same book packaging company, the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Here we meet Frank and…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here is the thrilling final episode of Dandelion Cottage, written way back in 1904 by Carroll Watson Rankin. Even though this book is more than a hundred years old, so many of the experiences seem to be right up to date: the anxiety that comes in preparation for a dinner party, f…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life! I would love to hear from you, so please send me an email at kluker@marshallpl.org. It would make me so happy! Listening to audiobooks really does count as reading, and there's no better way to relax than to hear Stories Come to Life! Let me know what you think! Please send an email to me at kluker@marshallpl.org. I…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. In the last episode, Mr. Downing, the church warden, told his wife he intended to listen with the strictest impartiality to the girls’ side of the story concerning those terrible Milligans. But does he listen? Not at all! He is more concerned with noticing all the little homey de…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When dear Grandma Pike moved away, the girls wondered and wondered who their new neighbors would be. Finally, they arrived: a man and his wife, a boy, a girl (about the age of the four cottagers), a baby, and a dog! How wonderful it would be to have a new friend, and a new baby t…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. This is an episode of departures. First there is lovely Miss Blossom, the three-week lodger in Dandelion Cottage. But alas, three weeks passes so quickly and before the girls know it, Miss Blossom has to leave. Then Grandma Pike, who lives next door, moves away to live with her m…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Can you imagine furnishing a whole house, well, a cottage, with old, cast-off furniture and cracked dishes and a couch that is really just burlap spread over boxes? That is what Bettie, Mabel, Jean, and Marjory are doing, and they are having the time of their lives! If only they …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When I was a little girl, my dad built a playhouse under a big blue spruce tree for my sisters and me. I spent hours and hours playing in it. I swept the floor and decorated it with pictures I drew and flowers I picked in the alley. What wonderful memories I have of that little p…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that Simon and Schuster Publishing Company has given permission for this book to be read out loud and shared on Stories Come to Life until December 31, 2023. But of course, the episodes that fall under that special permission w…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that Simon and Schuster Publishing Company has given permission for this book to be read out loud and shared on Stories Come to Life until December 31, 2023. But of course, the episodes that fall under that special permission w…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that Simon and Schuster Publishing Company has given permission for this book to be read out loud and shared on Stories Come to Life until December 31, 2023. But of course, the episodes that fall under that special permission w…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that Simon and Schuster Publishing Company has given permission for this book to be read out loud and shared on Stories Come to Life until December 31, 2023. But of course, the episodes that fall under that special permission w…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that Simon and Schuster Publishing Company has given permission for this book to be read out loud and shared on Stories Come to Life until December 31, 2023. But of course, the episodes that fall under that special permission w…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Ben Mason has faced so many obstacles as he has tried to make his place at Clearview Academy. He was assigned extra work so he would appear to be out of condition, he was able to save the life of a teammate and fainted from the loss of blood as a result, and now he is enduring a …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When I was visiting my parents a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was reading The Winning Basket on this podcast. Pleased, Dad shared with me this poem that seems very fitting for Ben’s tale. It is one of the poems in a book called Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickl…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here is some amazing basketball! With Ben on the team, the Clearview Academy cadets have the opportunity to win and win and win. But tensions inside of the team seem to be pulling the squad apart. What in the world can Ben do to make the team start to click again? As always, Ben …

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Now as a member of the Clearview Academy basketball squad, Ben Mason knows this gives him a chance to prove to the rest of the school that he is worthy to be one of them. He plays with all his heart and tries to motivate his teammates to play their best as well. When they face th…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Now Ben has to work for his living, in order to have enough money to live until Clearview Academy returns his tuition and he can decide what else he can do to make his start in life. Because he is a good mechanic with a level head, he thinks of some ways to speed up the productio…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When I was growing up, I would often go down the basement where my dad had set up bookshelves that he made into a library. I would scan the shelves, searching for something interesting to read. Over the years, I read many, many of those books, some of them several times. Two book…

Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here is the thrilling conclusion of The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill. Somehow that old stone barn must actually have some magical enchantment to it because none of the Hollisters or the Grahams will ever be the same again after falling under its influence. But is it a…