Behind the Mic: On Leaving Lymon by Lesa Cline-Ransome, Read by Dion Graham

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.

Today, host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss Dion’s narration of Leaving Lymon, Lesa Cline-Ransome’s historical fiction about a young Black boy growing up in the 1940s. In this Earphones Award-winning audiobook, listeners get to know Lymon, who appeared as a bully in her earlier book, Coretta Scott King Award-winner Finding Langston. Dion narrates the story with so much heart, conveying Lymon’s vulnerability at always feeling left behind by those he loves. Listeners see Mississippi, Milwaukee, and Chicago through Lymon’s eyes, as he moves from home to home. Dion’s calm tones give listeners hope that love and music will heal Lymon.

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Support for Behind the Mic comes from Oasis Audio, publisher of the complete Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library and the all-new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe.