Fresh Ink
edited by Lamar Giles; read by various artists
Middle School    Listening Library    Rev. 9/18
4 CDs    5.08 hrs.    978-0-525-59565-6    $38.00

Giles opens this anthology of twelve short works with a foreword containing this message: “I hope you find [a hero] who looks like you, or thinks like you, or feels like you. If not, I hope you find glimpses into other worlds that are both respectful and enlightening.” Indeed, the collection combines an impressive group of writers with carefully chosen narrators (a few authors read their own stories). While it explores marginalized communities, including people of color and those with LGBTQ+ identities, this anthology is also diverse in genre — including romance; historical, contemporary, and science fiction; a Walter Dean Myers one-act play (read by an ensemble cast) that grapples with gun violence; and a sound effects–supplemented Gene Luen Yang graphic story (with art on disc as PDF) — all with authentically voiced cultural representation.

From the March/April 2019 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.