SAINT MONKEY

Fourteen-year-old outcasts in the "colored" section of a small 1950s Kentucky town are distinctively characterized in Allyson Johnson's narration. Caroline has larger-than-life dreams of escaping family shackles, but in a few years it is bespectacled bookworm Audrey who manages to land a piano-playing gig at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Although Johnson's narration captures a sense of place and people in the counterpoint narration of the two girls, it really soars when Audrey arrives in New York City. A hint of the cosmopolitan flavors Audrey's voice and letters home, and a growing snarkiness coats her estranged friend's voice. The story speaks volumes about the Jim Crow South through the experiences and constraints faced by these young women. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2014]