THE JOURNEY OF LITTLE CHARLIE

Narrator Michael Crouch's excellent delivery of dialect conveys the 1850s world of Little Charlie Bobo, the 12-year-old son of a sharecropper. Charlie is recovering from the shock of his father's accidental death when Cap'n Buck, overseer of the plantation, announces the boy must fulfill an old debt. Crouch portrays Charlie's innocence and his horror at being thrust into kidnapping an enslaved family that has escaped to freedom in Canada. Crouch's depiction of Cap'n Buck's menace, callousness, and cruelty is chilling. It seems even worse when juxtaposed with the tenderness of the family he entraps. Both set the tone for Charlie's burgeoning understanding and courageous action to undo the evil of Cap'n Buck. An author's note describes Curtis's writing process and the story's origins. S.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2018]