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The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love & Truth Audiobook
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Publisher Description
This powerful collection of short stories, essays, and poems is a call-to-action that invites all families to be anti-racist and advocates for change.
Thirty diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators--including Renee Watson (Piecing Me Together), Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Meg Medina (Merci Suarez Changes Gears), and Adam Gidwitz (The Inquisitor's Tale)--engage young people in frank discussions about racism, identity and self-esteem. Featuring stories filled with love, acceptance, truth, peace, and an assurance that there can be hope for a better tomorrow, The Talk is an inspiring anthology and must-have resource published in partnership with Just Us Books, a black-owned children's publishing company that's been in operation for over 30 years. Just Us Books continues its mission grounded in the same belief that helped launch the company: Good books make a difference.
So, let's talk.
Featured contributors: Selina Alko, Tracey Baptiste, Derrick Barnes, Natacha Bustos, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Raúl Colón, Adam Gidwitz, Nikki Grimes, Rudy Gutierrez, April Harrison, Wade Hudson, Gordon C. James, Minh Lê, E. B. Lewis, Grace Lin, Torrey Maldonado, Meg Medina, Christopher Myers, Daniel Nayeri, Zeke Peña, Peter H. Reynolds, Erin K. Robinson, Traci Sorell, Shadra Strickland, Don Tate, MaryBeth Timothy, Duncan Tonatiuh, Renée Watson, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Features original music by Curtis Hudson.
This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF of sources and notes from the authors.
"The go-to book for talking to kids about race and privilege. Thoughtful. Thought-provoking. A must-read for every family." -Ellen Oh, editor of Flying Lessons & Other Stories and cofounder of We Need Diverse Books
"The ingredients are all here. May this magnificent collection inspire us to move from dialogue to deep action." -Kirkus, Starred Review
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"“This collection should speak to any child or adult—especially BIPOC children and adults—who has been affected by systemic racism and inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. . . . An anthology filled with abiding inspirational messages of self-love and love for others."
— Shelf Awareness
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A NEW YORK TIMES Best Children's Book of the YearAn NPR Best Book of the YearA Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
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The essays, stories, poems and letters . . . make plain that the hard conversations we all need to have about race are part of a broad reckoning with our nation’s history. The book’s black-and-white images project love and support.
— The New York Times -
This star-studded collection of #ownvoices authors calls readers in for necessary reminders in service of everyday actions that we must pursue to cultivate real change.
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review -
Though readers of color may find a number of these entries far too familiar, there is striking versatility in the approaches, cultures, and experiences of the authors that will compel readers of all backgrounds to continue forward.
— Booklist, starred review -
Validating for readers already familiar with these kinds of talks and importantly enlightening for those to whom the ideas of such restrictions are new.
— The Bulletin, starred review -
Through contributors’ personal experiences with systemic issues, readers will recognize the necessity of having open dialogue with loved ones. A compelling call to action.
— Publishers Weekly, starred review -
A well-conceived anthology that provides much-needed enlightenment and opportunity for both reflection and discussion.
— The Horn Book -
A heartfelt collection that speaks to the multifaceted and nuanced struggles of marginalized people.
— School Library Journal
Awards
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Nominated for Massachusetts Children's Book Award, 2021
The Talk Listener Reviews
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About the Authors
Janina Edwards, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a native of Chicago and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts acting program. Her 2016 performance of Voice of Freedom was a finalist for the Audie Award.
Bahni Turpin has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and several prestigious Audie Awards for her audiobook narrations, and Publishers Weekly magazine named her Narrator of the Year for 2016. She is an ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, What about Brian, and The Comeback. Film credits include Brokedown Palace, Crossroads, and Daughters of the Dust. She is also a member of the recording cast of The Help, which won numerous awards.
About the Narrators
Bahni Turpin, winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and several prestigious Audie Awards for her narrations, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. Publishers Weekly magazine named her Narrator of the Year for 2016. She is an ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, What about Brian, and The Comeback. Film credits include Brokedown Palace, Crossroads, and Daughters of the Dust. She is also a member of the recording cast of The Help, which won numerous awards.
Vikas Adam is a classically trained actor with numerous credits in stage, film, commercials, and television, in addition to his hundreds of recorded audiobooks. In 2025 he was named a Golden Voice, AudioFile magazine’s lifetime achievement honor for audiobook narrators. His narrations have garnered numerous other awards and nominations, including more than twenty-five AudioFile Earphones Awards, various Best of the Year lists, and the prestigious Audie Award. He was an inaugural inductee into the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame.
Feodor Chin, an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an actor classically trained at the American Conservatory Theater and UCLA. His acting career includes numerous credits in film, television, theater, and voice-over.
Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, director, film producer, and multiaward–winning narrator. He has won several Audie Awards for best narration, including for 2019’s Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was named by Booklist as winner of their 2023 Voice of Choice Award, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, from classics to modern masters, from bestsellers to the inspirational, from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to spine-tingling series, and much more. In television and film, he is best known for his roles in A Murder at the End of the World, The Sopranos, 24, I Shot Andy Warhol, Dinner Rush, and Romeo Must Die. He is also trained in theater and continues to do much work on stage.
Michael Crouch is an actor based in New York City. His audiobook narration has won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, and Best of the Year accolades from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. He can also be heard on national commercials, cartoons, video games, and the animé series Pokémon XY and Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V.
Janina Edwards, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a native of Chicago and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts acting program. Her 2016 performance of Voice of Freedom was a finalist for the Audie Award.
James Fouhey is an actor and AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator living in New York City. He received classical training at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He has recorded more than 150 audiobooks across a variety of genres, including science fiction, romance, young adult fiction, and children’s fiction.
Shaun Taylor-Corbett is an actor, singer, and writer. A graduate of the University of Delaware, he has television and Broadway credits, including the role of Sonny on Broadway in In the Heights. He also has off-Broadway credits including In the Heights and Altar Boyz.
Imani Parks is a voice talent and Earphones Award–winning narrator.
Danny Campbell is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and an actor who has appeared in CBS’ The Guardian, the films A Pool, a Fool, and a Duel and Greater Than Gravity, and in over twenty-five commercials. He is a company member of the Independent Shakespeare Company in Los Angeles and is an adjunct faculty member at Santa Monica College.
Kyla Garcia is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. Born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, she discovered acting at the age of eight when she played Lady Macbeth in a children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. She made her off-Broadway debut at fifteen when she played Dorothy in Oz: A Twisted Musical. Eleven years after she discovered her passion for acting, she would go on to play Lady Macbeth once again in London at the Globe Theatre, where she studied Shakespeare during her third year at Mason Gross School of the Arts. She received her BFA in acting from Rutgers University.
Guy Lockhard is a voice talent and Earphones Award–winning narrator.
Lisa Renee Pitts is an award-winning actress in theater, television, and film, as well as an accomplished audiobook narrator and an AudioFile Earphones Award winner.