A full cast performs this heartfelt audio set in Jim Crow Virginia. Charley Cuffey loves two things best of all: playing baseball and her Nana Kofi's stories of Africa. When Charley and her friends move a meaningful game to the whites-only field across town, the resulting backlash brings the widespread impacts of racism and violence to her door. All the narrators' voices mix prose, free verse, and rhyming poetry. Angel Pean, as Charley, provides the anchor for the story as her cheerful optimism and self-confidence are challenged by the prejudice her family faces daily. Dominic Hoffman's lovingly gruff tones as Charley's grandfather, Nana Kofi, provide balance and a connection between the younger and older generations.
(Verse historical fiction. 10-18)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
Duration: 4 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781668623824
Publisher: Hachette Audio
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: Jan. 13, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798217080861
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Joey Florez juggles the many facets of this audiobook. Depicting seventh grader Alex Ramirez, a neurodivergent student, Florez honors both the character and the verse format of the story. He gives his narration a definitive rhythm. Periodically, Ramirez uses fluid Spanish that reflects Alex's heritage and adds another rhythm to the narration. Alex has been in an SC (self-contained) classroom since a third-grade conflict landed a former friend in the hospital. Florez's narration reveals Alex's intelligence and curiosity, frustration with the limitations on his learning and with bullying, passion for space, and determination to escape his narrow bounds and enter a mainstream science class, his first step in attaining his dreams.
(Verse fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
Duration: 2 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217071289
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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