Narrator Dion Graham's calm, confident voice takes middle-grade listeners through an introduction to a turbulent time in American history. Henry Gates and Tonya Bolden's title is a clear and lucid primer to America at the end of the Civil War, during Reconstruction, and up to the beginning of Jim Crow segregation. The audiobook version omits the many documents included in the text while delivering a smoothly flowing narrative. Graham's assured tones explain important people and events, such as PLESSY V. FERGUSON and the Dred Scott case, leaving young listeners with a better understanding of the lives of freedmen and women in the wake of the Civil War. Justly expressing outrage at these people's tenuous and changing rights, this audiobook is all too reflective of our current times.
(Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2019
Duration: 3 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781338330700
Publisher: Scholastic Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
In 1832 thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle is sailing from Liverpool to Rhode Island to rejoin her family. Shocked to discover that the families who were to have been both guardians and companions will not accompany her, Charlotte embarks on a journey filled with terror and swashbuckling adventure. The first-person narrative makes this Newbery Honor book a wonderful choice for recording. O'Karma's reading, with its hint of cross-gender differentiation, allows the listener to feel as if Charlotte Doyle herself were relating the tale. This story should be particularly alluring to adolescent girls although the fast-paced action and the nautical setting will also appeal to male listeners. Ages 12-adult.
Ages 12+Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 6 hrs
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners will be inspired by this principled prime minister who tackled her country’s biggest challenges with...
Aspiring leaders, take note! In her Kiwi accent, Jacinda Ardern narrates this heartfelt and sincere adaptation of her memoir A Different Kind of Power, eliciting chuckles with amusing anecdotes and tears over tragedies. Ardern recounts her modest childhood, her unlikely path to politics, and her rise to New Zealand’s highest office as a young, pregnant, unmarried woman—armed with empathy, intelligence, faith, supportive loved ones, and a desire to serve. She shepherded her country through a volcanic eruption, Covid-19, and a mass shooting. Her heartrending narration of the shooting switches to steely resolve as she works to ban assault rifles.
Listeners will be inspired by this principled prime minister who tackled her country’s biggest challenges with kindness. (Memoir. 12-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 55 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217342044
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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