2008 ALA Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production

“Exuberant music, powerful narration, and image-filled poetry combine to create this extraordinary recording, winner of ALA’s first Odyssey Award for excellence in audiobook production.” -The Horn Book

2018 ALA Odyssey Honor Award  “Andrews refers to creating “a musical gumbo,” and the metaphor represents this audiobook perfectly.

“This history of black culture performed by a talented ensemble of eight voices is a listening treasure. Cleverly presented in 29 short episodes, the verse and soundscape elucidate a chronological account of events and people who played small and monumental roles in the history of black America—….The cast of Dion Graham, William Jackson Harper, Zainab Jah, January Lavoy, Robin Miles, Lizan Mitchell, Jonathan Earl Peck, and Carter Redwood give variety and energy to each piece.”

Winner of AdioFile Earphones Award

AudioFile Earphones Award “This concise audio biography is a special tribute to acclaimed writer, poet, and Civil Rights activist Maya Angelou. Narrator Cherise Boothe’s beautiful, clear voice evokes Angelou’s spirit and embodies the power of the spoken word. .

AudioFile Earphones Award  “Narrator Shayna Small embodies Ruth Ellen, the young Black girl who is escaping life on a tenant farm….Narrator Dion Graham calls out as the conductor in a booming voice and quietly joins in when Ruth Ellen reads from a worn copy of Frederick Douglass’s chronicle of his escape to freedom.”

“Five talented narrators knit together the stories of five children from different countries who settle in the same Lower East Side apartment building…” AUDIOFILE