MY LIFE AS AN ICE CREAM SANDWICH

Narrator Ibi Zoboi gives emotive power to the first-person viewpoint of quirky 12-year-old Ebony-Grace. Two 1980s settings are established: Ebony-Grace's hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, where NASA is a big part of the culture, and Harlem, where she discovers the blossoming hip-hop culture when she's sent to live with her father. Once she's there, big changes take place in Ebony-Grace herself. She retreats into a richly imagined Star Trek-inspired reality, remaking her experiences into intergalactic adventures that enable her to avoid homesickness, worry about her beloved grandfather, and mockery by her peers. The science-fiction threads of this story can distract from the characters, but Zoboi's strong delivery reminds listeners of what lurks below the surface--Ebony-Grace's feelings of isolation, longing for her simpatico grandfather, and resilient vitality. S.W. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2019]