ON THE JELLICOE ROAD

Taylor Markham, an Australian high school student, spends her senior year trying to make sense of her personal history in this well-crafted coming-of-age story. The plot builds smartly as connections are made and seemingly unrelated pieces slot into place. Rebecca Macauley guides and compels the listener as the narrative jumps back and forth in time and switches point of view. She's equally believable as kid and adult, as teen boy and teen girl, and she's especially adept at communicating the full, riotous range of teen emotion. The mood swings, from sarcastic to despairing to intimate to playful and back again, could have been overdone, but instead they feel authentic every step of the way. J.M.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2009]