Four narrators create a striking collection of voices that explore and celebrate little-known poems of Black women from the Harlem Renaissance. In this collection, poet Nikki Grimes alternates a Harlem Renaissance poem with an original poem based on the work, using the golden shovel composition form. In a lively, youthful voice, Bahni Turpin narrates Grimes's works, as well as Grimes's introduction to the history of the Harlem Renaissance and an explanation of the golden shovel method; Karole Foreman, Zakiya Young, and Janina Edwards alternate reading the historical poems. Turpin's light tone for Grimes's poems serves as a contemporary counterpoint to the deeper, more somber tones of the historical works. The juxtaposition of both the poems and the narrators' voices is compellingly presented.
(Poetry. 9-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2021
Duration: 1 hr, 15 mins
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A disappointment.
Narrator JJ Hawkins gives voice to the hurt and anger eighth grader Jasper, an autistic trans boy, feels when his older brother goes off to college while Jasper channels his emotions into digging for fossils in the backyard. It can’t be possible…but then a saber-toothed tiger speaks telepathically to Jasper from beneath the earth. What could be cooler? Unfortunately, Gow’s free verse poems emphasize Jasper’s roiling emotions over plotting and pacing, with the result that listeners spend more time hearing how Jasper feels than they do experiencing the suspense of discovery and the excitement that ensues. Hawkins does his best to lend Jasper some nuance, but his efforts can go only so far with a character who is written as an exposed raw nerve.
A disappointment. (Verse fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798349108426
Publisher: Dreamscape
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2026
Ho perfectly captures Mei Mei’s complex emotions as she endures the most difficult and painful experience of her life.
Narrator Catherine Ho creates a determined voice for 12-year-old Mei Mei, a Chinese American girl living in 1880s San Francisco. Her parents send her to live with her aunt and uncle in Eureka, California, so she can attend school. Ho expresses Mei Mei’s anguish when her aunt and uncle force her to work instead of attending school, as promised. When a co-worker offers to teach Mei Mei to read, it gives her a taste of the freedom she longs for. When violence breaks out in the city, forcing Chinese people to leave, Ho’s narration becomes dramatic and fast-paced, reflecting the intense moment.
Ho perfectly captures Mei Mei’s complex emotions as she endures the most difficult and painful experience of her life. (Verse historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
Duration: 2 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798318537615
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2026
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