Narrator Natalia Payne delivers a somber yet hopeful performance of this picture-book audio detailing a Ukrainian girl's experiences during the 1932-33 Ukrainian famine/genocide. On her birthday, Zlata, whose name means "golden," receives a blouse embroidered with red threads for love and black for sadness. These emotions are woven into the fabric of her life as her family contends with brutal Communist soldiers who plunder their fields, destroy their belongings, and take Zlata's father away. Payne's measured performance is enhanced by well-placed sound effects and a superb musical soundtrack with repeating motifs that signal danger, sorrow, and the togetherness of family life. Although Zlata and her family endure the bitterest pain, it is her gently communicated determined grace that listeners will remember.
(Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2024
Duration: 10 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250329547
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A poignant portrait of bravery.
Graham Halstead’s narration contains layers of emotion that fully reveal the character and growth of 13-year-old Lucas Dubois, an orphan living in 1944 occupied France. Halstead shows Lucas’ compassion as he rescues newborn kittens from being drowned. Lucas’ tenderness extends to a teen mother kept at the Lebensborn, a Nazi maternity home dedicated to producing soldiers-to-be. Lucas delivers groceries and conveys underground messages. Halstead also reveals the prickly nature of Alice, an older teen protecting her horse from being captured by Nazis. Halstead’s performance matches the breakneck pacing when Lucas stands up to German soldiers and confronts his own sense of insecurity.
A poignant portrait of bravery. (Historical fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781250433039
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 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
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