A boy who has been assigned to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility learns unexpected lessons that change the trajectory of his life.
To say Alex has had it rough is an understatement. His father’s gone, his mother is struggling with mental health issues, and he’s now living with an aunt and uncle who are less than excited to have him. Almost everyone treats him as though he doesn’t matter at all, like he’s nothing.
So when a kid at school actually tells him he’s nothing, Alex snaps, and gets violent. Fortunately, his social worker pulls some strings and gets him a job at a nursing home for the summer rather than being sent to juvie. There, he meets Josey, the 107-year-old Holocaust survivor who stopped bothering to talk years ago, and Maya-Jade, the granddaughter of one of the residents with an overblown sense of importance.
Unlike Alex, Maya-Jade believes that people care about what she thinks, and that she can make a difference. And when Alex and Josey form an unlikely bond, with Josey confiding in him, Alex starts to believe he can make a difference—a good difference—in the world. If he can truly feel he matters, Alex may be able to finally rise to the occasion of his own life.
Download and start listening now!
“Dion Graham’s masterful narration clarifies this novel’s shifts in point of view and vividly defines its main characters…Gayle Forman reads the author’s note…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
“Forman interweaves the tales carefully, with striking language and depth of feeling…Powerful, heartbreaking, and hopeful.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“This tale of intergenerational friendship forged through a shared understanding of loss by Forman is told with spellbinding grace.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Forman is a master of the slow, heart-wrenching reveal…Those who stick with this story will be richly rewarded.”
— Booklist (starred review)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Gayle Forman is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author and journalist. She has written several bestselling novels for young adults, including the New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and in 2014 was adapted into a major motion picture.
Dion Graham is an award-winning narrator named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Audie Award numerous times, as well as Earphones Awards, the Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards, IBPA Ben Franklin Awards, and the ALA Odyssey Award. He was nominated in 2015 for a Voice Arts Award for Outstanding Narration. He is also a critically acclaimed actor who has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. He is a graduate of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, with an MFA degree in acting.