New Kids’ Audiobook Read by Teens, Tweens and a Ukrainian Grandma
The dog book Bash and Lucy Say, “Love, Love, Bark!” is now a kids’ audiobook read by teens, tweens, and a Ukrainian grandma. It includes a bark-over by golden retriever Hudson, the authors’ dog.
Many of the readers are homeschoolers. Mateo Taylor, age 13, reads the parts of three main characters–Bash, James and Matthew.
He is an award-winning actor based in Portland. At age 6, Mateo made his professional acting debut at Portland’s Winningstad Theatre as Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol. Mateo has played Gavroche in Les Miserables and has done several films in Oregon, Washington and California. At age 8, Mateo became brand ambassador for a Silicon Valley tech company, filming numerous industrials. He’s done commercial and theatrical voice-over work, including two campaigns for a national retail store and as the voice of Chase from Paw Patrol for its video game release.
Avery Christ is the voice of Adam, Paula and Rasheed.
Avery has performed in numerous theatrical productions. Some of their recent roles include Wolf in Into the Woods, Underling in Drowsy Chaperone Jr the Musical,Teen Fiona in Shrek Jr the Musical, and Regina in Rock of Ages Jr the Musical. They have been singing and playing piano for years and were very excited to try voice acting for the first time in Bash and Lucy Say, “Love, Love, Bark!”
Sunny Christ reads the chapter titles and is the voice of Rasheed.
Sunny has performed in a number of plays, including Alice in Alice in Wonderland, Derrick McCreedy in Nancy Drew and the Case of the Missing Letter, Milky White in Into the Woods, and Ensemble in The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. the Musical. She has also taken piano, singing, and dancing lessons. Sunny was very excited to be performing in her first audiobook.
Tate Noble is the voice of Coach and random characters with various accents .
If the authors needed an accent, they asked Tate to do the reading. If they needed some comedy, Tate was the man. He conquered pretty much any part we thrown his way!
Tate is an aspiring voice actor who has been doing impressions his entire life. He has been involved with multiple theatre productions since he was very young, and fell in love with acting as a whole. With this as his first venture into voice acting, he hopes to practice and further develop his skills in the future. He helped edit the audiobook.
Vera Moroz is the voice of Grandma Vera.
Vera grew up in Soviet-occupied Ukraine, in the village of Cherkasy, where she was born in 1942. She embodies strength, goodness, kindness, and intelligence–just like the Vera in Bash and Lucy Say, “Love, Love, Bark.”
When Vera turned six, her mother convinced the local teacher to let Vera attend school, in part because the bright young girl demanded it. Conditions were dismal. “The school was half-broken, only one big room. We had one long table and there was fourteen children, different ages,” said Vera.
Vera, a grandmother, now studies English, sells home-made food, and babysits to raise money for Ukrainians hurt by conflict.
In Bash and Lucy Say, “Love, Love Bark!” someone has been stealing Bash’s favorite dog books from the library, books that help calm him when the world is too loud, too bright, or too busy.