EDGAR ALLAN

This audio production of a book published nearly 50 years ago could be dismissed as sounding like a teacher reading to her class. After all, Kitty Hendrix is narrating a first-person account of a preteen boy. Young Michael, who is white, recounts a few months in his family's life when they foster a black toddler named Edgar, who changes the family members' views of each other at the same time that they're judged by their small community. Hendrix's voice is mellow enough to let the text--including Michael's observations and confrontations--remain central. This is more than a middle-grade story about race. Hendrix's sensitive delivery invites thoughts about the way the family handles pressure from without--and from within--as well as the lingering questions of "difference." M.P.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2018]