Crystal

Gr 8 Up—Sixteen-year-old Crystal Brown—sweet, black, and beautiful—is attracting attention as a magazine model and is on the way to achieving her mother's dream, "to live away from the smells of other people's lives." But as success brings new opportunities, the sleazy underbelly of the business is exposed and Crystal begins to understand that she must decide between "the things that are right and the things that are wrong and the many things that (fall) in between." First published in 1987, this work is newly available as an audiobook. The predictable plot is enhanced by the multidimensional voice of narrator Sisi Aisha Johnson, who perfectly captures the rhythms and sassy speech of teenage girls, infusing each speaker with a unique personality. The production is marred slightly, however, by unnaturally long pauses between tracks.