Publisher Description
New York Times and Essence best-selling author Alexs D. Pate is also a professor of African American studies at the University of Minnesota. Set in the turbulent 1960s, West of Rehoboth is the story of 12-year-old Edward Massey's summertime coming of age in the resort town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Edward and his family have escaped the heat and violence of inner-city Philadelphia every summer for the last 5 years. Staying at his Aunt Edna's house in West Rehoboth--the black side of town--Edward has the whole summer to have fun and explore. First, Edward wants to learn about the mysterious man named Uncle Rufus living in the shack behind Aunt Edna's. As Edward and Rufus form a tenuous friendship, Edward risks losing himself to the same negativity that torments his uncle. Pate's richly imagined West Rehoboth and its inhabitants will surprise and intrigue listeners. The spellbinding voice of narrator Dion Graham brings out every nuance of Pate's striving characters.
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“Every character is capably portrayed by Dion Graham: bitter Edna, tragic Rufus, sweet, innocent Eddie, modern black parents, street gangs, and white police officers. Graham fluidly presents asides, thoughts, and rising tension and even croons beautiful spirituals as the listener participates in a dreamy and magical coming-of-age story…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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AudioFile
About Alexs Pate
Alexs D. Pate is an author and educator and founded of Innocent Classroom with the vision to eliminate the power of racial stereotypes in schools through authentic relationships between teacher and child. He is the author of several novels, and his work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Utne Reader, and Artpaper. As a poet and mentor, he was awarded the Kay Sexton Award in 2021.
About Dion Graham
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.