Lyrical free verse crosses time and reaches hearts as Dion Graham animates the parallel stories of Ishmael, the biblical son of Abraham and Hagar, and contemporary African-American teenager Sam, whose father has left his family to marry a white woman. Both sons feel lost, diminished, and jealous after second sons are born; both curse God, mourn losses, and finally come to love their stepbrothers. Graham sows Nikki Grimes’s melodic words with dark, powerful feelings. He precisely and softly delivers Ishmael’s imagery, as if the biblical child’s feelings whisper across time to Sam’s world. Sam’s narrative is delivered in harsher, more sorrowful and sarcastic, tones—until he reads Ishmael’s story. When he discovers the link to his “dark brother,” Graham lights his last words with hope.
(Fiction. YA)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2010
Duration: 1 hr, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780310555711
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
With deliberate pacing and a clear-toned Castilian accent, narrator Carlotta Brentan transports listeners to fifteenth-century Spain during the Inquisition. Seven-year-old Paloma is the granddaughter of a powerful Jewish leader. But even for wealthy Jews, life is as precarious as a "ceiling made of eggshells." As she gets older, Loma longs to get married and have her own family even as she watches her community suffer persecution, mob violence, exile, imprisonment, and forced conversion to Christianity. The audiobook shines a light on Loma's day-to-day life as Brentan voices her multigenerational family, including her stern, harsh mother; her hypocritical older brother; her meek, dutiful sister-in-law; and her wizened grandfather. Loma's own voice reflects the youthful hope and heartrending injustice of her time.
(Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063007215
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Michelle Weisborn vividly portrays Evie Steinberg. Weisborn's youthful tone reflects Evie's delight when she moves to Southern California and discovers that Dara, her BFF from summer camp, goes to her new school. Weisborn also captures the anxious yet determined feelings of the seventh grader who demands perfection from herself after messing up her father's cryptozoology work. Soon, Evie is shocked to learn that Dara has told her schoolmates that Evie is weird and a liar. Evie sets out to expel the cruel golem who surely must have taken over Dara and works to regain her father's trust. Weisborn evenly handles themes that range from bullying and expectations--one's own and those of others--to self-acceptance.
(Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
Duration: 6 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781547613083
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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