Piecing Me Together
by Renée Watson; read by the author
Middle School, High School    Recorded Books    Rev. 7/17
5 CDs    5.5 hrs    978-1-5019-9779-2    $51.75

Watson (winner of the 2018 Coretta Scott King Author Award and a 2018 Newbery Honor for this novel) movingly conveys the emotions of her thoughtful, bright, artistic, African American protagonist Jade. Her reading adds depth and intimacy to the conversational, introspective tone of the powerful first-person text. Jade’s navigation of relationships at home, in her community (particularly with Maxine, her mentor through a “Woman to Woman” program), and in a private school in Portland, Oregon, make plain the trials posed by systemic racism, microaggressions, and class divisions, but there’s tremendous joy here, too. The result is that listeners will feel like they’ve spent time with a real contemporary teenage girl as they learn about Jade, and learn from her, too.

From the November/December 2018 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.