Safekeeping
A Novel of Tomorrow

Name: Safekeeping
Brand: Macmillan Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Karen Hesse
ISBN: 9781427227218

Author: Karen Hesse

Narrator: Jenna Lamia

Unabridged: 4 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Macmillan Young Listeners

Published: 09/18/2012

Categories: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian, Politics & Government, Social Themes

Synopsis

Radley's parents had warned her that all hell would break loose if the American People's Party took power. And now, with the president assassinated and the government cracking down on citizens, the news is filled with images of vigilante groups, frenzied looting, and police raids. It seems as if all hell has broken loose.

Coming back from volunteering abroad, Radley just wants to get home to Vermont, and the comfort and safety of her parents. Travel restrictions and delays are worse than ever, and by the time Radley's plane lands in New Hampshire, she's been traveling for over twenty-four hours. Exhausted, she heads outside to find her parents—who always come, day or night, no matter when or where she lands—aren't there.

Her cell phone is dead, her credit cards are worthless, and she doesn't have the proper travel papers to cross state lines. Out of money and options, Radley starts walking. . . .

This is a vision of a future America that only Karen Hesse could write: real, gripping, and deeply personal.

About Karen Hesse

Karen Hesse is the author of many books for young people, including Out of the Dust, winner of the Newbery Medal, Letters from Rifka, Brooklyn Bridge, Phoenix Rising, Sable and Lavender. In addition to the Newbery, she has received honors including the Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award, the MacArthur Fellowship “Genius” Award and the Christopher Award, and was nominated for a National Jewish Book Award. Born in Baltimore, Hesse graduated from the University of Maryland. She and her husband Randy live in Vermont.

About Jenna Lamia

Jenna Lamia is the acclaimed narrator of Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which won a YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults award, and Carol Lynch Williams's The Chosen One, for which Jenna received the 2010 solo narration (female) Audie Award. Lamia made her Broadway debut in 1988 in Ah, Wilderness, and she's also appeared off-Broadway in The Glory Of Living, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Her other acting credits include appearances on Oz, Law & Order: SVU, The Jury, and NYPD Blue. She's also appeared in the films The Fighter, The Box, and Something's Wrong in Kansas.She attended Amherst College, New York University, and the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kris

This is an inbetween book for me. I picked it up on a whim from the library, and it was a super fast read. The story is compelling enough, and I've read enough AMERICA GONE ANARCHY to consider my self an expert. So here are the problems I had with this book. First, when the heck is it happening? Not......more

Goodreads review by Steffaney

Beware...this book will cause you to examine your heart--your life--just a bit closer, and it may be uncomfortable. But, absolution..that is what Radley Parker-Hughes gave to me, and will give to you. Her trek became my personal journey also, through uncertainty, grief and guilt. You find in the end......more

Quotes

“By turns tender and terrified, Jenna Lamia's voice brings tight focus to this first-person account of 17-year-old Radley's efforts to find her way home after political upheaval rocks the U.S…Lamia holds on to listeners' sympathy for the dumpster diving heroin, who is so fearful that she never musters the courage to ask what's going on as she focuses on day-to-day survival.” —AudioFile Magazine, winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

“Narrator Jenna Lamia delivers an entertaining, top-notch performance; her reading of this first person tale is crisp and well paced, and she proves completely convincing playing a maturing teenage girl, lending Radley a youthful voice that is soothing and earnest. Because of her quality narration, the audiobook is compelling throughout.” —Publishers Weekly

“Jenna Lamia provides expert narration.” —School Library Journal

“The focus of the story, set in the near future, is primarily on Radley's emotions and fears, and Lamia's reading pace and varied pitch highlight the teenager's uneasiness.” —Booklist

Awards

Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year

Safekeeping A Novel of Tomorrow