Behind the Mic: On King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Read by Ron Butler
Jo Reed and Emily Connelly Discuss a Spectacular Performance of a Heartbreaking—and Hopeful—Children’s Audiobook
Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens.
Narrator Ron Butler lends expertise, elegance, and expressiveness to his heartbreakingly beautiful performance of King, a black tween whose older brother has died. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss Kacen Callender’s must-listen audiobook for middle graders. Butler’s narration mirrors all of King’s emotions as the story sensitively explores racism, homophobia, child abuse, death, and sexuality. Each character, and most especially King, comes to life through Butler’s voice.
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Support for Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine comes from Oasis Audio, publisher of Jolina Petersheim’s How the Light Gets In—a 2020 Audie Awards winner.
