ON SNOWDEN MOUNTAIN

Narrator Megan Tusing's openhearted tone makes 12-year-old Ellen's struggle with her mother's bipolar disorder suitable for middle-grade listeners. When Ellen's father volunteers to fight in WWII, her mother is plunged into a deep depression at his absence, prompting Ellen to appeal to her estranged aunt for help. Early on, a stiffness in Tusing's voice reflects Ellen's indignation at her aunt's moving her and her mother from cosmopolitan Baltimore to a Virginia mountain town without electricity. But as Ellen embraces the strength of her hardworking aunt and befriends an outcast boy, Tusing's delivery becomes more earnest. She serves the story well by not overdoing it with Southern accents in favor of folksy character voices that suggest the 1941 setting. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2019]