The Things She’s Seen
by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina; read by Miranda Tapsell
High School    Listening Library    Rev. 9/19
4 CDs    4.48 hrs.    978-1-9848-8440-4    $38.00

Tapsell provides a gripping performance of the Kwaymullinas’ Australia-set crime story about a mysterious fire at a children’s home, which is being investigated by a grieving detective, a most unlikely sidekick (his deceased daughter, now a ghost), and a mysterious witness named Isobel Catching. The narrator is adept at modulating her voice to fit two distinct female points of view while capturing a wide range of diction, from teenaged defiance to suspenseful whispers to horrified realizations. The surprising ending turns this expertly narrated edge-of-your-seat thriller into a captivating metaphorical story of the historical separation of children from their Aboriginal families. An author’s note touches on Aboriginal storytelling methods.

From the November/December 2019 Horn Book Magazine.