Iris McElroy & Olivia Langen are the audiobook producers of the 2026 Odyssey Honor-winning audiobook, WHALE EYES, written and read by James Robinson. Their speech was delivered at the Odyssey Awards at the American Library Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois on June 27, 2026. Learn more about all the 2026 Odyssey Award Winners from Listening Library here.
Iris McElroy: “I’m so excited to be up here along with my wonderful co-producer Olivia Langen and author James Robinson, to accept the honor for WHALE EYES.
In the introduction James says that ‘the best audiobooks felt like I was sitting side by side with an author. That we were a team.’ And that’s what it felt like working with you. This whole book is about the way that James sees and experiences the world. The print edition is very visual, full of images, visual games, exercises, the script is even flipped upside down at one point. It was James’s ideas and brand of creativity and background in video production that brought the audio to life in a unique way. Thank you so much for lending your voice to this production, for your trust and collaboration, and to your family and friends for being our audiobook guinea pigs with the games and exercises.
I extend my gratitude to the Odyssey committee, ALSC, YALSA and Booklist for honoring this audiobook. I’d like to thank Olivia for providing her creativity in sound design and support. I love the curiosity that you always bring to these productions.”
The WHALE EYES team accepts the Odyssey Honor.
As we all likely know, audiobooks were originally created as accessibility tool, and projects like this remind us how important the medium of oral storytelling is. Many thanks to our editors at John Marshall Media who put all of the puzzle pieces together into one seamless listening experience, and thank you again to the librarians who are platforming these wonderful audiobooks today and every day.”
Read author James Robinson’s Odyssey speech here.
LISTEN TO AN AUDIOBOOK CLIP
