When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez, Read by the Author

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.

Elisabet Velasquez narrates her debut novel-in-verse, When We Make It, for teen listeners with vividness, honesty, and poignancy born of her life experience and performance expertise. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss this captivating audiobook told in short, powerful, and energetic vignettes. Like her heroine, Sarai, Puerto Rican American Velasquez grew up in Bushwick and knows what it’s like to be poor amidst gentrification. Sarai is working hard to discover her identity despite intense struggles, and repeated titles and lines serve as haunting refrains. The book slams into you in audio—it’s a story meant to be heard, and with the author’s specific voice and rhythms.

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