
Sitting on Top of the World
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Whitney Dykhouse
-
By:
-
Cheryl King
About this listen
Fourteen-year-old June Baker never in a million years thought she’d be dressing like a boy, sneaking into a hobo camp, and jumping onto a moving freight train to travel across the state of Tennessee.
But, that’s what she has to do to find work so her family’s farm can survive. It’s 1933, and the Great Depression is spreading misery throughout America. Where once June was sitting on top of the world, now she’s carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Once she was picking fruit from the pawpaw trees, and now she’s picking up the pieces of a family torn apart. Once she was climbing and falling from trees, and now she’s jumping from moving trains. June knows the risks. What she doesn’t know is that the railroad bull she’s falling for has a devastating secret that will change the course of her life.
Sitting on Top of the World is an audiobook that middle school and high school teachers can be proud to include in their classroom library or in reading instruction, and it is an audiobook that's loved by both teens and adults.
©2021 Cheryl King (P)2022 Cheryl KingListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Book of Last Letters
- By: Kerry Barrett
- Narrated by: Harrie Dobby, Josephine Arden
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1940. When nurse Elsie offers to send a reassuring letter to the family of a patient, she has an idea. She begins a book of last letters: messages to be sent on to wounded soldiers’ loved ones should the very worst come to pass so that no one is left without a final goodbye. London, present day. Stephanie has a lot of people she’d like to speak to: her estranged brother, to whom her last words were in anger; her nan, whose dementia means she is only occasionally lucid enough to talk.
-
-
A historical fiction goodie
- By Patricia Coates on 04-12-22
By: Kerry Barrett
-
Run, Rose, Run
- A Novel
- By: James Patterson, Dolly Parton
- Narrated by: Dolly Parton, Kelsea Ballerini, James Fouhey, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Run, Rose, Run is a novel glittering with danger and desire—a story that only America’s #1 beloved entertainer and its #1 bestselling author could have created.
-
-
I can't.
- By Teresa3607 on 03-08-22
By: James Patterson, and others
-
Dinner with the Schnabels
- By: Toni Jordan
- Narrated by: Ian Bliss
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Things haven't gone well for Simon Larsen lately. He adores his wife, Tansy, and his children, but since his business failed and he lost the family home, he can't seem to get off the couch. His larger-than-life in-laws, the Schnabels - Tansy's mother, sister and brother - won't get off his case. To keep everyone happy, Simon needs to do one little job: he has a week to landscape a friend's backyard for an important Schnabel family event. But as the week progresses, Simon is derailed by the arrival of an unexpected house guest.
-
-
Heartwarming, enjoyable
- By KNimblett on 05-28-23
By: Toni Jordan
-
The Tower
- The Bedlam Bible, Book 1
- By: William Pauley III
- Narrated by: Connor Brannigan
- Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something is happening to the residents of Eighth Block Tower. There's radiation in the walls. Salt covers the hallways. The food and water are poisonous. A giant green brain pulsates under the roof, pumping electric venom throughout the apartment building. The residents are trapped and losing their minds. Sanity is a myth. Sickness is life.
-
-
Weird and creepy and at times very weird and creep
- By Bill on 05-30-22
-
Spirit of a Hummingbird
- Memories from a Childhood on the Run
- By: Felicia Thai Heath
- Narrated by: Felicia Thai Heath
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Spirit of a Hummingbird, Felicia Thai Heath, the daughter of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who met in the United States, gives us a disquieting, eventful memoir based on her early childhood on the run with her father—a notorious Vietnamese kingpin and escaped convict—and her conflicted mother. Clever and mature beyond her age, young Felicia experienced poverty and witnessed abuse as her dysfunctional family bounced around in the United States and Canada. Amid all the tumult and terror, she found ways to love her family, educate herself, navigate her world, and discover her potential.
-
-
Captivating, Compelling & Courageous
- By Anonymous User on 03-31-24
-
Their Eyes Were Watching God
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is the luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years.
-
-
perfection
- By Mel on 04-06-15
-
The Book of Last Letters
- By: Kerry Barrett
- Narrated by: Harrie Dobby, Josephine Arden
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1940. When nurse Elsie offers to send a reassuring letter to the family of a patient, she has an idea. She begins a book of last letters: messages to be sent on to wounded soldiers’ loved ones should the very worst come to pass so that no one is left without a final goodbye. London, present day. Stephanie has a lot of people she’d like to speak to: her estranged brother, to whom her last words were in anger; her nan, whose dementia means she is only occasionally lucid enough to talk.
-
-
A historical fiction goodie
- By Patricia Coates on 04-12-22
By: Kerry Barrett
-
Run, Rose, Run
- A Novel
- By: James Patterson, Dolly Parton
- Narrated by: Dolly Parton, Kelsea Ballerini, James Fouhey, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Run, Rose, Run is a novel glittering with danger and desire—a story that only America’s #1 beloved entertainer and its #1 bestselling author could have created.
-
-
I can't.
- By Teresa3607 on 03-08-22
By: James Patterson, and others
-
Dinner with the Schnabels
- By: Toni Jordan
- Narrated by: Ian Bliss
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Things haven't gone well for Simon Larsen lately. He adores his wife, Tansy, and his children, but since his business failed and he lost the family home, he can't seem to get off the couch. His larger-than-life in-laws, the Schnabels - Tansy's mother, sister and brother - won't get off his case. To keep everyone happy, Simon needs to do one little job: he has a week to landscape a friend's backyard for an important Schnabel family event. But as the week progresses, Simon is derailed by the arrival of an unexpected house guest.
-
-
Heartwarming, enjoyable
- By KNimblett on 05-28-23
By: Toni Jordan
-
The Tower
- The Bedlam Bible, Book 1
- By: William Pauley III
- Narrated by: Connor Brannigan
- Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something is happening to the residents of Eighth Block Tower. There's radiation in the walls. Salt covers the hallways. The food and water are poisonous. A giant green brain pulsates under the roof, pumping electric venom throughout the apartment building. The residents are trapped and losing their minds. Sanity is a myth. Sickness is life.
-
-
Weird and creepy and at times very weird and creep
- By Bill on 05-30-22
-
Spirit of a Hummingbird
- Memories from a Childhood on the Run
- By: Felicia Thai Heath
- Narrated by: Felicia Thai Heath
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Spirit of a Hummingbird, Felicia Thai Heath, the daughter of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who met in the United States, gives us a disquieting, eventful memoir based on her early childhood on the run with her father—a notorious Vietnamese kingpin and escaped convict—and her conflicted mother. Clever and mature beyond her age, young Felicia experienced poverty and witnessed abuse as her dysfunctional family bounced around in the United States and Canada. Amid all the tumult and terror, she found ways to love her family, educate herself, navigate her world, and discover her potential.
-
-
Captivating, Compelling & Courageous
- By Anonymous User on 03-31-24
-
Their Eyes Were Watching God
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is the luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years.
-
-
perfection
- By Mel on 04-06-15
-
My Last Name
- By: Eric Schumacher
- Narrated by: Fadra Nally
- Length: 1 hr and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ninety-five-year-old Lottie Barnes now lives in a care facility in her native Iowa. Restrained by the physical trappings of old age and cognitive decline, she struggles to comprehend her present surroundings. Nevertheless, her life story unfolds as she remembers key moments from her past with sharp clarity.
-
-
Beautiful story!
- By busymom on 07-31-21
By: Eric Schumacher
-
The Grapes of Wrath
- By: John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 21 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic The Grapes of Wrath remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of Dust Bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of Tom Joad and his family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel west in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires, and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision.
-
-
Wish I could give it 10 stars!
- By P. Minor on 07-18-14
By: John Steinbeck, and others
-
Dolores Claiborne
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frances Sternhagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dolores Claiborne is suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, and when the police question her, she tells the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband 30 years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera's physical and mental decline and how she became emotionally demanding in recent years.
-
-
Absolutely Fantastic!
- By Matthew S. Hill on 06-06-16
By: Stephen King
-
The Cryptographer's Dilemma
- Heroines of WWII, Book 1
- By: Johnnie Alexander
- Narrated by: Cecily White
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
FBI cryptographer Eloise Marshall is grieving the death of her brother, who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor, when she is assigned to investigate a seemingly innocent letter about dolls. Agent Phillip Clayton is ready to enlist and head oversees when asked to work one more FBI job. A case of coded defense coordinates related to dolls should be easy, but not so when the Japanese Consulate gets involved, hearts get entangled, and Phillip goes missing. Can Eloise risk loving and losing again?
-
-
Enjoyed the story…not the narrator
- By KP on 09-26-24
-
Same Kind of Different as Me
- A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
- By: Ron Hall, Denver Moore, Lynn Vincent - contributor
- Narrated by: Daniel Butler, Barry Scott
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the “Man” in the 1960’s by hopping a train. Untrusting, uneducated, and violent, he spends 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth. Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high-priced deals—an international arts dealer who moves between upscale New York galleries and celebrities. It seems unlikely that these two men would meet under normal circumstances, but when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, meets Denver, she sees him through God's eyes of compassion.
-
-
Stays with me...
- By Rebekah Sue Carolla on 09-23-18
By: Ron Hall, and others
-
Whistling Past the Graveyard
- By: Susan Crandall
- Narrated by: Amy Rubinate
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1963, nine-year-old spitfire Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother's Mississippi home. Starla hasn't seen her momma since she was three - that's when Lulu left for Nashville to become a famous singer. If she can get to Nashville and find her momma, then all that she promised will come true: Lulu will be a star. Daddy will come to live in Nashville, too. And her family will be whole and perfect.
-
-
Thank You Baby Jesus!
- By tooonce72 on 11-20-13
By: Susan Crandall
-
The Complete Shiloh Trilogy
- Shiloh; Shiloh Season; Saving Shiloh
- By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Narrated by: Peter MacNicol, Michael Moriarty, Henry Levya
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Marty Preston comes across a young beagle in the hills behind his home, it's love at first sight - and also big trouble. It turns out the dog, which Marty names Shiloh, belongs to Judd Travers, who drinks too much and has a gun - and abuses his dogs. So when Shiloh runs away from Judd to Marty, Marty just has to hide him and protect him from Judd.
-
-
Shilo
- By K on 02-07-19
-
Cold Sassy Tree
- By: Olive Ann Burns
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The one thing you can depend on in Cold Sassy, Georgia, is that word gets around fast. If the preacher's wife's petticoat shows, the ladies will make the talk last a week. But on July 5, 1906, things take a scandalous turn. That is the day E. Rucker Blakeslee, proprietor of the general store and barely three weeks a widower, elopes with Miss Love Simpson, a woman half his age and, worse yet, a Yankee!
-
-
A Feel-Good Story
- By Chrissie on 07-13-13
By: Olive Ann Burns
-
The Angels of Morgan Hill
- By: Donna VanLiere
- Narrated by: Donna VanLiere
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The small town of Morgan Hill, Tennessee, is turned upside down in 1947 when the Turners become the only black family ever to move into the area. Nine-year-old Jane Gable first lays eyes on young Milo Turner the day that her trouble-making, alcoholic father is buried in the Morgan Falls cemetery. When the Turners begin work as sharecroppers on a local tobacco farm, their presence challenges the comfort of many in the close-knit town and Jane leans heavily on her best friend, 53-year-old general store owner Henry Walker, for guidance. Then tragedy strikes the Turner household
-
-
The Angels of Morgan Hill
- By marcella deckard on 11-06-17
By: Donna VanLiere
-
What Momma Left Behind
- By: Cindy K. Sproles
- Narrated by: Erica Sullivan
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Worie Dressar is 17 years old when influenza and typhoid ravage her Appalachian Mountain community in 1877, leaving behind a growing number of orphaned children with no way to care for themselves. Worie’s mother has been secretly feeding several of these little ones on Sourwood Mountain. But when tragedy strikes, Worie is left to figure out why and how she was caring for them.
-
-
Good to the end!
- By Paula E. on 07-03-20
By: Cindy K. Sproles
-
Almost Home
- By: Valerie Fraser Luesse
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With America's entrance into the Second World War, the town of Blackberry Springs, Alabama, has exploded virtually overnight. Workers from all over are coming south for jobs in Uncle Sam's munitions plants - and they're bringing their pasts with them, right into Dolly Chandler's grand but fading family home turned boardinghouse. An estranged young couple from the Midwest, unemployed professors from Chicago, a widower from Mississippi, a shattered young veteran - they're all hoping Dolly's house will help them find their way back to the lives they left behind.
-
-
Intriguing Novel
- By Lilo on 01-04-24
-
Home to Holly Springs
- The First of the Father Tim Novels
- By: Jan Karon
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After more than 38 years, Father Tim Kavanagh returns to his childhood home of Holly Springs, Mississippi, on a profoundly personal journey. Whatever became of Tommy Noles, his forbidden childhood friend, and Peggy, the loving woman who was like his second mother? What were the facts behind the court trial that drove the Kavanagh family even further apart?
-
-
Interesting start to a new series
- By Sara on 12-12-13
By: Jan Karon
What listeners say about Sitting on Top of the World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer McKenna
- 06-19-22
Best historical fiction I've read this year
I listened to the audiobook version of Sitting on Top of the World. I was so drawn in by the story and Whitney Dykhouse's performance, that I finished the book in under 24 hours and was calling my friends to recommend it before my earbuds were out.
Spanning the whole of the Great Depression, it comes as no surprise that June Baker, the novel's teenage protagonist, faces horrifying loss alongside her family, friends, town, and country. She has to navigate adolescence, and all its complicated facets, while keeping her family afloat.
The story is brilliantly told by June in the first person, and her voice is nuanced. The innocence of a little girl delighted by marbles and whittling is overlaid by the responsibility she feels for her family. Ms. King does a wonderful job of balancing narrative and inner dialogue, and June's voice matures through the book. The use of idioms from the time felt genuine and natural, and it was easy to slip into a world where resources and hope were limited. It did not have the feel of the typical YA title, whether that was intentional or not, I'm not sure. I think it resonates betters as adult fiction.
In short, I loved this book. I found it at once heartwarming, inspiring, devastating, captivating, infuriating, and hopeful. Many thanks to Ms. King who so generously shared her book with me on Audible.
4 stars
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!