Audiobooks narrated by Channie Waites

A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of the Snowy Day

On the 100th anniversary of his birth, a celebration of the extraordinary life of Ezra Jack Keats, creator of The Snowy Day. Andrea Davis Pinkney's powerful and poetic text tells the story of Ezra Jack Keats, who was born in Brooklyn in 1916, and grew up in extreme poverty. Keats's artistic talent was recognized even in high school, but his father's death made it impossible for him to accept the art school scholarship he was offered; however, Keats continued to study art informally whenever possible. He served in the army in World War II and subsequently lived in Paris, Eventually, Keats found his way to children's books, and with the groundbreaking Caldecott winner The Snowy Day, the first mainstream picture book to feature an African American child, he became part of children's literature history. Keats's best-loved books are the ones that portray the neighborhood where he grew up. He was an inspiration to many artists of color, who, for the first time, saw themselves reflected in his books. The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation was established after his death, with the goal of promoting more diverse books and helping new authors and illustrators. A perfect match for the text is the art of Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, who use a colorful collage style to suggest Keats's own art. With beautiful writing from a distinguished author and about a distinguished author/artist, A Poem for Peter has the potential to be an award-winner.

Andrea Davis Pinkney (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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All of the Above

We know there's a lot of people out there who think our school is a dead end. And that all the kids inside it are dead ends, too. ... But they've got it all wrong. Just you wait and see! James, Rhondell, Sharice, and Marcel are four inner-city students on a quest to build the world's largest tetrahedron with their math teacher, Mr. Collins. If they succeed, maybe Rhondell will make new friends, Sharice's foster mother may start to care, James will discover something he's good at, and Marcel's dad will finally see that there is more to life than barbecue. Maybe they'll even end up in the Guinness Book of World Records! Weaving together the stories of the kids, their teacher, and the community that surrounds them, award-winning author Shelley Pearsall has written a vividly engaging story about math, life, and the importance of friendship.

Shelley Pearsall (Author), Channie Waites, Chris Henry Coffey, Corey Allen, Karen Chilton, Kevin R. Free, Landon Woodson, Lynette R. Freeman (Narrator)

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Becoming Billie Holiday

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 7, 1915, Sadie Fagan gave birth to a daughter. She named her Eleanora. The world, however, would know her as Billie Holiday, possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time. Eleanora's journey into legend took her through pain, poverty, and run-ins with the law. By the time she was fifteen, she knew she possessed something that could possibly change her life—a voice. Eleanora could sing. That remarkable voice led her to Harlem nightclubs, the Apollo Theater, and a place in the spotlight with some of the era's hottest big bands. Billie Holiday sang from somewhere inside her that made it seem as if she had lived each lyric, and in many ways she had. This unique talent is what made Billie Holiday more than a singer. She was an artist. Through a sequence of raw and poignant poems that form the singer's fictional memoir, award-winning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles Eleanora Fagan's metamorphosis into Billie Holiday. We hear the intimate voice of the artist as she examines her young life, her fight for survival, and the dream she pursued with passion.

Carole Boston Weatherford (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

On March 2, 1955, a slim, bespectacled teenager refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Shouting "It's my constitutional right!" as police dragged her off to jail, Claudette Colvin decided she'd had enough of the Jim Crow segregation laws that had angered and puzzled her since she was a young child. But instead of being celebrated, as Rosa Parks would be when she took the same stand nine months later, Claudette found herself shunned by many of her classmates and dismissed as an unfit role model by the black leaders of Montgomery. Undaunted, she put her life in danger a year later when she dared to challenge segregation yet again - as one of four plaintiffs in the landmark busing case Browder v. Gayle. Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of a major, yet little-known, civil rights figure whose story provides a fresh perspective on the Montgomery bus protest of 1955-56. Historic figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks play important roles, but center stage belongs to the brave, bookish girl whose two acts of courage were to affect the course of American history.

Phillip Hoose (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Congo Stories: Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed

Chosen by Amazon as the Best Book of the Month for December 2018 in Biographies & Memoirs, History, and Nonfiction. Featuring the life story of Dr. Denis Mukwege, winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize From the author of the New York Times bestselling and award-winning Not on Our Watch, John Prendergast co-writes a compelling book with Fidel Bafilemba--with stunning photographs by Ryan Gosling--revealing the way in which the people and resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been used throughout the last five centuries to build, develop, advance, and safeguard the United States and Europe. The book highlights the devastating price Congo has paid for that support. However, the way the world deals with Congo is finally changing, and the book tells the remarkable stories of those in Congo and the United States leading that transformation. The people of Congo are fighting back against a tidal wave of international exploitation and governmental oppression to make things better for their nation, their neighborhoods, and their families. They are risking their lives to resist and alter the deadly status quo. And now, finally, there are human rights movements led by young people in the United States and Europe building solidarity with Congolese change-makers in support of dignity, justice, and equality for the Congolese people. As a result, the way the world deal with Congo is finally changing. Fidel Bafilemba, Ryan Gosling, and John Prendergast traveled to Congo to document some of the stories not only of the Congolese upstanders who are building a better future for their country but also of young Congolese people overcoming enormous odds just to go to school and help take care of their families. Through Gosling's photographs of Congolese daily life, Bafilemba's profiles of heroic Congolese activists, and Prendergast's narratives of the extraordinary history and evolving social movements that directly link Congo with the United States and Europe, CONGO STORIES provides windows into the history, the people, the challenges, the possibilities, and the movements that could change the course of Congo's destiny.

Fidel Bafilemba, John Prendergast (Author), Channie Waites, Jerome Butler, John Prendergast, Peter Ganim (Narrator)

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Dactyl Hill Squad

It's 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker. Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community--a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it's too late?

Daniel Jose Older (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Dear America: With the Might of Angels

In the fall of 1955, twelveyearold Dawn Rae Johnson learns she will be the only one of her friends attending a previously allwhite school. However, not everyone supports integration and Dawnie must endure the realities of racism firsthand. In time, Dawnie learns that the true meaning of justice comes from remaining faithful to the integrity within oneself.

Andrea Davis Pinkney (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Emilie and the Hollow World

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie's plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure. Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende's missing father. With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.

Martha Wells (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Emilie and the Sky World

When Emilie and Daniel arrive in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of the Marlendes, warns them that she's observed something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. But as the Marlendes investigate further, they realize it's a ship from another aetheric plane. It may be just a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister, but they will have to take an airship into the dangerous air currents to find out. Emilie joins the expedition and finds herself deep in personal entanglements, with an angry uncle, an interfering brother, and an estranged mother to worry about-not to mention a lost family of explorers, the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the sky world.

Martha Wells (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Forever This Summer

It was because of the Alzheimer's, which is like a big bully that takes stuff that doesn't belong to them and won't give it back. Georgie has no idea what to expect when she, Mama, and Peaches are plopped down in the middle of small-town USA-aka Bogalusa, Louisiana-where Mama grew up and Great-aunt Vie needs constant care. Georgie wants to help out at the once-famous family diner that served celebrities like the Jackson 5 and the Supremes, but everyone is too busy to show her the ropes, and Mama is treating her like a baby, not letting her leave her sight. When she finally gets permission to leave on her own, Georgie makes friends with Markie-a foster kid who'd been under Aunt Elvie's care-who has a limb difference and a huge attitude. Then Markie asks Georgie to help her find her mom, and suddenly the summer has a real purpose. As Georgie's and Markie's histories begin to entwine, Georgie becomes more desperate to find the truth, and she may even find a way to right past wrongs and help Aunt Vie and Markie out after all. From the critically acclaimed author of Love Like Sky comes a novel about holding on to family identity, and memories in post-Katrina Louisiana.

Leslie C. Youngblood (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Freedom Fire

Magdalys and the squad are flying south on pteroback. South to rescue her older brother. South to war. The squad links up with the dino-mounted troops of the Louisiana Native Guard, an all-black regiment in the Union Army fighting to free their people. They're led by General Sheridan, surrounded by enemy forces in Tennessee and desperate for any edge to sway the tide of battle. Magdalys's burgeoning powers might be the Union's last hope. But she doesn't want to abandon the search for her brother. And she might not be the only one with a mysterious connection to dinosaurs. With the Civil War raging around her and the Union on the brink of collapse, how can Magdalys choose between the army that needs her help to survive and the brother she risked everything to save?

Daniel Jose Older (Author), Channie Waites (Narrator)

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I'm Not Dying with You Tonight

Over the course of one night, two girls with two very different backgrounds must rely on each other to get through the violent race riot that has enveloped their city. Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she's going to make it big. Campbell, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school. When both girls attend the Friday-night football game, what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden mass chaos. Chaos born from violence and hate. Chaos that unexpectedly throws them together. They aren't friends. They hardly understand the other's point of view. But none of that matters when the city is up in flames, and they only have each other to rely on if they're going to survive the night.

Gilly Segal, Kimberly Jones (Author), Brittany Pressley, Channie Waites (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Channie Waites