Black Child to Black Woman


Cheryl Denise Bannerman

Narrator: Tanya Hauth
Genre: 
Audiobooks

WOMEN'S FICTION/CHICK-LIT:  Tara Walker finds her childhood journal while she is at home for the funeral of her brother.  The listener observes Tara’s emotional growth and occasional heartbreak as she navigates the path from child to adult.  She overcomes some extremely tough challenges, and navigates everything with energy and occasionally even some necessary attitude.  She finds a few close friends along the way, but she also experiences jealousy, frustration, judgment and less-than-ideal decisions.  She often has to find a way to turn a negative situation into something good, and she succeeds more often than not.  This audiobook succeeds in opening the eyes and perspectives of the listener regarding the life of a bright and successful young black woman.

The pace of this audiobook moves along at an acceptable rate.  The story is formatted into journal entries that examine each challenge/phase of her life as she encounters it.  There is a low-level tension in places, but it is not present throughout the entire audiobook.  The story is well told from the perspective of the author.  The listener/reader watches Tara’s life unfold through the narrative.  Although there aren’t any noticeable differences in the way each character is performed, they are identified within the narrative, which helps to keep the listener on track.

The production quality was good, with a couple of notable exceptions.  There are extremely long breaks between each journal entry, to the point that it seems the recording has stopped.  This is somewhat disconcerting.  Additionally, there aren’t any obvious differences between the male and female voices within the audiobook.  Perhaps this is explained by the format: journal entries read by a narrator.  Other than these issues, the narrator conveys the tone and spirit of the author’s words effectively.  

Carey Sullivan