Showing results by narrator "Billie Bryant" in All Categories

It is my father’s fault that I love soccer so much. He doesn’t know much about girls, but as a former professional soccer player, we built a bond as he perfected my skills. My aunties have kept an extra eye on me since my mother died. I’ve avoided their insistence on dance classes that would take precious time away from my beloved girls’ soccer team.

Narrated by 11-year-old Orla Gwen Gleason, Orla’s Canvas opens on Easter Sunday, in St. Suplice, Louisiana, a “misspelled town” north of New Orleans, and traces Orla's dawning realization that all is not as it seems in her personal life or in the life of her community. The death of St. Suplice’s doyenne, Mrs. Bellefleur Dubois Castleberry, for whom Orla’s mother keeps house, reveals Orla’s true paternity, shatters her trust in her beloved mother, and exposes her to the harsh realities of class and race in the Civil Rights-era South.

Lula grew up in a tiny house on the edge of a tiny town, the youngest in a large family. Walk with her as she finds simple joy and a world all her own in Mrs. Bridgewater's Blanket Shop.

After a prisoner begs for their life and is granted mercy by The General, his queen is forced to confront her rising jealousy. Jealousy over this prisoner lying for his favor. Jealousy over the mistress he obsesses over. Jealousy that everyone is more powerful than she is. The mounting need to prove her worth distorts the world around her, and blinds her to the powerful position her husband has given her. While the young queen grapples with this urgency to secure the crown upon her head, another kingdom slowly falls into decay waiting for their own ruler to step up and fight for them.