If you're a teacher, you'd want your students to write about you like this. If you're not, this is the audiobook you wish you'd written about someone who had a profound effect on your life. Jerry Kupchynsky was a public school music teacher who poured his life into teaching, with remarkable and transformative results. The two authors were his students--and one of the two is his daughter. Narrators Kathleen McInerney and Eliza Foss alternate the narration. McInerney's voice is gentle and expressive, and she does a fine job with characters and intonation. Foss has a rather stern, pointed voice that grabs our attention and leads us through the text. Her voice is not as polished, but its authenticity lends her reading credibility and realism.
Pub Date: 2013
Duration: 10 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781401370336
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Kozol’s shocking exposé of inequities in the funding of our public schools contrasts white suburban schools with those serving black and Hispanic populations. Interviews with students, teachers, and school administrators add eloquent testimony to Kozol’s disturbing presentation of facts. Narration by Jack Winston is clear and brisk, but the pace is unrelenting, with little pause for transition between scenes or chapters. Winston’s cool, detached voice contrasts with Kozol’s impasssioned and outraged message. The sheer repetition and magnitude of Kozol’s damning evidence is numbing; the narration gives no relief. Powerful medicine, most easily taken in small doses. Music signalling tape changes is jarringly inappropriate.
Pub Date:
Duration: 8 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Kudos to the author, publisher, and narrator of this audiobook. Author Ewing delivers her introduction, which sets up the arguments. She then turns the body of the text over to Golden Voice narrator Robin Miles. Miles is a gifted performer whose tone, tempo, and cadence enhance the dark truths of this provocative work on the failure of our educational system. Ewing, who is a scholar and poet, indicts American schools as historically rigged against Black and Native American students. She defines in well-supported detail the pillars of racism that have tainted attitudes towards both groups: the belief that they are intellectually inferior and lack discipline, along with economic subjugation. Packed with telltale episodes, this work provides sociological context. A must-listen for parents and politicians.
Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 12 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593908242
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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