STEALING

Narrator DeLanna Studi accomplishes an impressive feat in narrating this novel, set in the 1950s. Her depiction of 9-year-old Kit Crockett resonates as she captures the tone and often breathless cadence of the bright child. Kit's Cherokee mother dies early on, and her white father commits a seemingly justified double murder, but he still spends much of the novel in jail. The soulless clergy who take responsibility for Kit are depicted as rigid and craven. One sends Kit to a horrific boarding school, where Native girls are abused by the minister in charge. Studi portrays the wise Kit as a person who skillfully navigates the natural world and knows how to fend for herself. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2023]