The Journey of Little Charlie
by Christopher Paul Curtis; read by Michael Crouch
Intermediate, Middle School    Listening Library
Rev. 3/18    5 CDs    5.23 hrs.    978-0-8041-6802-1    $45.00

Twelve-year-old narrator “Little Charlie” Bobo is already the size of a man, and when his South Carolina sharecropper father dies in a freak accident, the sheriff suspects Charlie. Charlie figures that’s just another example of the “luck of the Bobos,” and his luck gets even worse when the cruel white overseer of a nearby plantation insists on Charlie (who is also white) accompanying him to Detroit on a mysterious mission to retrieve “stolen property.” Charlie is observant but very naive, and it takes a while for him to realize why they are heading north. Narrator Crouch does an excellent job conveying Charlie’s speech (which can be challenging to read in the print version) along with the ugliness of the despicable Cap’n Buck.

From the July/August 2018 issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: ALA Awards.