What was it like to transform from a healthy 12-year-old to a young girl paralyzed by polio in just the space of a few days? In her fictionalized memoir, children's author Peg Kehret traces this journey and the following months of rehabilitation in 1949. Kehret's account is riveting in large part due to narrator Susan Boyce. Neither sentimental nor saccharine, Boyce moves steadily through the details of the trying days. As Peg, she uses pause and emphasis to illuminate the moments of deep fear, of understanding and acceptance, and of increasing determination. Boyce also voices the worry of Peg's parents, stress on the part of nurses (for example, when her parents insist on a chocolate milkshake), and both the optimism and discouragement of fellow patients.
Ages 8+Pub Date: 2013
Duration: 3 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781620646328
Publisher: AudioGo
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Riveting. Young adult listeners will learn a lot from Swanson’s overview of John F. Kennedy’s early years, election, and administration—as well as from his minute-by-minute account of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas in November 1963. Will Patton is purposeful and precise as he narrates. With the you-are-there style, listeners ride in Kennedy’s limousine, look down from the Texas School Book Depository, move through the halls of the Dallas police station, fly with the shocked and grief-stricken entourage in Air Force One, and walk with the funeral cortege. With brisk and urgent pacing, Patton voices each factual nugget and lets it hang momentarily before pressing on to the next. Other features include audio excerpts from Kennedy’s inaugural speech and a list of landmarks listeners may want to visit.
Young AdultPub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
Duration: 4 hrs
Publisher: Scholastic Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrators Jeff Cummings and Adenrele Ojo give refreshing energy to 14 wide-ranging essays about the global upheaval and social shifts of the year 1968. Both narrators provide a scholarly tone to the broad- reaching discussion of social movements like the Cultural Revolution and the Prague Spring. They strike an introspective tone for the more personal stories, one focusing on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, assassination and another reveling in the freedom of riding bikes across the country. Elizabeth Partridge's poem "Nightly News," woven throughout, captures the mounting body counts of the War in Vietnam. Though sophisticated and balanced, the diversity of this anthology suffers some with only two narrators. Overall, though, the authors add helpful context to a year bursting with newsworthy moments fit for comparison to our own time.
(Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
Duration: 6 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781978644236
Publisher: Brilliance Audio/ Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
