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Ariana Delawari reflects the uncomfortable mix of feelings of Cassie Perera, which began with her betrayal of her best friend, Ben, in sixth grade, when the two were caught swapping outfits. She denies her friendship to avoid revealing her same-sex attractions, hiding behind being perfect at school, church, and home. Delawari carries listeners forward into Cassie's junior... Read More

Narrators Ariana Delawari and Vaneh Assadourian portray best friends Layla and Mira after a road trip mishap leaves them stranded in a motel. Their room is inhabited by a dark force, voiced by narrator Ramiz Monsef. The room wants Mira because she carries the burden of her brother's death; Assadourian's mature and measured voice works well for the mourning teen as she and Layla... Read More

FROM THE PUBLISHER: A high-flying YA anthology featuring thirteen short stories that turn superhero tropes on their head and offer fresh perspectives on modern myths. Triumph. Tragedy. The empyreal. The infernal. Even the mundane, filtered through the fantastical. Superheroes are, appropriately enough, a sort of super-genre, encompassing all other story types. This YA anthology... Read More

Telling the story from the point of view of Res, a Mars rover with heart, Jacob McNatt smoothly morphs into multiple characters who interact with the robot. It is delightful to hear Res process information and resolve problems, speak to robot friends Journey and Fly, and imagine conversations with the scientists who are building him. Also engaging is the lively banter among the... Read More

Ariana Delawari is a strong-voiced narrator for this memoir by Afghanistan's first female mayor. Delawari is measured, precise, and deliberate in her delivery of Zarifa Ghafari's story. Delawari transmits the pain Ghafari endured and the grit she exhibited in the face of no less than six attempts on her life, along with the murder of her father, as a consequence of her taking... Read More

Narrator Ariana Delawari excels at catching the ups and downs of 12-year-old Yasmeen Khoury, who unwillingly leaves Detroit to move with her parents to San Antonio. Having been embraced by an Arab-American community in Michigan, Yasmeen faces a Texas suburban community in which all the houses and most of the people look the same. Delawari's narration runs an emotional gamut:... Read More

Narrator Ariana Delawari's accent and youthful voice are well suited to this novel in verse featuring Nurah Haqq, a new Pakistani immigrant who is making a difficult transition to life in Peachtree City, Georgia. Nurah and her confident older brother, Owais, find friends on the high school swim team, but the family suffers racism and bullying nonetheless. Listeners hear Nurah's... Read More

Ariana Delawari is a strong, determined voice for this memoir by Homeira Qaderi, who writes about growing up in wartime Afghanistan and about being pregnant and giving birth under the Taliban. She is unflinching in her descriptions of this painful journey, which begins when she is a child. When she grows up, she becomes pregnant, struggles to safely give birth, and then is... Read More

Alternating performances by narrators Bernardo de Paula and Ariana Delawari ably express the points of view of Brandon and Reshmina on the mornings of 9/11/2001 and 9/11/2019, respectively, as their worlds explode. Brandon is at his father's workplace in the World Trade Center, and Reshmina is outside her village in Afghanistan, where she finds an American soldier after an... Read More

You can hear the compassion in narrator Ariana Delawari's voice as she tells the story of Rose and Gameela--Egyptian sisters who choose different paths that determine one's life and the other's death. When Gameela is killed by a suicide bomber in Cairo not long after Egypt's revolution, Rose is left reeling with guilt and unanswered questions about Gameela's life after Rose... Read More

In this fresh, captivating audiobook, narrator Ariana Delawari gives a bright voice to 26-year-old Leila Abid, an American-born Indian Muslim who has been given three months to find a husband--or her parents will find one for her. As naïve Leila wades through months of dreadful dates, well-meaning aunties, and an overbearing matriarch, Delawari draws in listeners with her... Read More

Narrator Ariana Delawari's childlike pitch and pacing perfectly capture the magical realism of this delicious spin on Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Eleven-year-old Mimi wants to win the baking contest being held by the interesting new bakery in town. While seeking inspiration in the woods, she meets a boy from India who shows her edible flowers and herbs, which she... Read More

In this compassionate audiobook, three students in a class, Emma, Jason, and Jesse, portrayed by Frankie Corzo and Ramon de Ocampo, find ways to make three three newcomers feel welcome: Maria, portrayed by Ruth Livier; Jin, portrayed by de Ocampo; and Fatimah, portrayed by Ariana Delawari. Thoughtfully, each of the original students tries to connect with one of the newcomers:... Read More

Three female narrators work together in this Palestinian family epic. Ariana Delawari, Dahlia Salem, and Susan Nezami provide variations in accent, rhythm, and speed so listeners can distinguish between the main characters. Delawari is the voice of teenage Isra, a daydreaming village girl who leaves behind all she knows in a move to America after an arranged marriage. Listeners... Read More

Narrator Ariana Delawari gives voice to the youthfully uncertain Janna, a Hijabi teen and self-described misfit. An excellent student, she's active in the youth group at her mosque but uncomfortable with both of her divorced parents and resentful of her mother's affection for her older brother and his “saintly” girlfriend. As she tries to overcome having been sexually assaulted... Read More

As narrator Ariana Delawari portrays fifth-grader Winnie, other voices join in and express the playfulness of this story. Winnie's parents are divorcing. Delawari plays up the irony of their demands for equal time and their competition in celebrating every ridiculous holiday--like Peach Cobbler Day. When Winnie spends Wednesdays alone in the elaborate tree house between her... Read More

Young, vibrant narrators voice heartfelt concerns as Fatima, Maria, and Jin are each welcomed into new classrooms in a new country. Listeners will hear them wistfully voice their concerns about language fluency and establishing a sense of belonging in their new communities. The repetitive phrasing of each memory of “back home” is powerful. While the pacing of each vignette is... Read More

Narrator Ariana Delawari’s guileless tone embodies young, vulnerable Obayda, whose comfortable life in Kabul is turned upside down when her father loses a leg in a street bombing, forcing the family to move to the small village where his family can help with his recovery. Reading without an accent in a childlike pitch, yet giving authentic voice to Afghani names and phrases,... Read More

The women of Afghanistan are as besieged as their country. But they're also resilient, a quality that is captured in this novel, which follows a bizarre set of crimes that land three ordinary women in jail. Narrators Ariana Delawari and Susan Nezami portray a range of characters while recounting the complicated lives of the housewives turned murder suspects. Did Zeba kill her... Read More

This lush reimagining of the fabled ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (aka THE ARABIAN NIGHTS) is told from the perspective of a determined teenager. The feisty Shahrzad volunteers for the sultan's service to avenge the death of her friend. Her personality is vividly characterized by Ariana Delawari. As narrator, her success is in her ability to emphasize Shahrzad's grit and passion.... Read More

Al Mansour based this audiobook on her inspiring film, WADJDA. Sadly, the story loses something in its transformation into print and audio. Without the imagery of the movie, the author's meticulous attention to detail as she describes the culture of Saudi Arabia is hindered by clunky writing and an uninspired delivery. Ariana Delawari does an acceptable job of giving voice to... Read More

Narrators Ariana Delawari and Assaf Cohen fully inhabit the vulnerability and uncertainty of present-day Afghanistan teenagers Fatima and Sami as they slowly fall into a love forbidden by both family and society. Delawari and Cohen dramatize both characters’ internal monologues as they process their feelings of love and fear. Cohen also voices Sami’s cousin, Rashid, a product... Read More

This story, written by a former American soldier, features an Afghan girl named Zulaikha who dreams of learning to read, marrying well, and living a peaceful life. Narrator Ariana Delawari reads with a slight lisp to reflect Zulaikha’s cleft palate. Delawari’s narration strongly conveys the timidity and strength Zulaikha has developed from living with this defect, the constant... Read More