Tavia Gilbert gives an expert reading of Katherine Paterson's moving account of a family of Albanian Muslims during the Kosovo War. As the Serbs begin their brutal ethnic cleansing, Meli Lleshi and her family flee their home, enduring Serbian atrocities and the terror of being hunted like animals. They face the ravages of hunger and cold, and the fear of separation, as they make their way toward Macedonia and their inevitable relocation to a refugee camp. Gilbert's performance brings genuine pathos to the family's plight without resorting to melodrama. When they immigrate to America, Gilbert makes their struggles with language and culture poignant, and after the 9/11 attacks, she makes the prejudice they face utterly realistic. Paterson's brief historical endnote will assist young listeners' understanding.
Young AdultPub Date: 2009
Duration: 4 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrator Sunny Lu creates a passionate voice for seventh grader Luna in this coming-of-age realistic fiction. Luna leaves her introverted life behind when she becomes a bibliotherapist for her fellow classmates, recommending books to help them in times of need and eventually writing her own zines with the assistance of her best friend, Scott. Lu perfectly captures Luna's complex emotions as she abandons Scott and joins the popular group. Now rather than writing to help others, she starts to hurt others by writing about their faults and flaws in "fix-its." Listeners will relate to Luna's struggles as she loses her way and will cheer her on in hopes that she finds her way back.
(Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: 2026
Duration: 6 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798217081578
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
It's 1975, and eleven-year-old Gao Sheng, a Hmong girl, is living in the highlands of Laos in a one-room house with her family. Then they are forced to flee. Narrator Robyn Morales lends a soft, feminine huskiness to the protagonist's voice as she describes the family's journey to a refugee camp, to gentle and thoughtful effect. The listener is transported alongside Gao Sheng to a new world as she reflects on memory, gender, and family relations in her culture; the events that change her life; and conditions in the refugee camp. An afterword provides context about the author's family's real-life experience. Morales' narration is comforting, even as she describes the difficult circumstances of refugees.
(Verse historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: 2026
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798217080861
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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