A RIDE TO REMEMBER

The author joins narrators Lovell Diggins and Janina Edwards as she shares with listeners her experience as the first African-American child to ride the carousel at the long-segregated Gwynn Oak Park in Baltimore in 1963. Langley mimics a little girl's voice in recounting her conversation with her parents about their access to the park and the carousel. Diggins's deep baritone interjects the father's lines, disrupting the flow. Edwards's balanced and modulated voice and professional style save this useful story from being a parody. The timeline and historical notes are excellent--the carousel now graces the National Mall, and Langley's ride coincided with the 1963 March on Washington--but the audiobook suffers from uneven production. R.F.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2020]