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    Yolonda's Genius
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    Yolonda's Genius
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    Yolonda's Genius
    Audiobook5 hours

    Yolonda's Genius

    Written by Carol Fenner

    Narrated by Novella Nelson

    3.5/5

    ()

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Yolonda is smart, tough, and big for her age. Back in Chicago where they used to live, everyone knew better than to mess with her or her little brother, Andrew. Andrew doesn't talk very much and he can't read, but he can create unbelievable music on the old harmonica their father left him.

    When Yolonda reads the definition of "genius" in the dictionary, she knows it describes Andrew, and she's determined to convince the world, and especially their mother, of Andrew's gift. Then one day when Yolonda's back is turned, the unthinkable happens, and the music stops. Now Yolonda's mission is more important than ever. How can she open people's eyes to Andrew's talent and help him find the music again?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 18, 2007
    ISBN9780739371947
    Author

    Carol Fenner

    Carol Elizabeth Fenner (1929–2002) was an American children’s book writer. Fenner’s book Gorilla Gorilla won a Christopher Award and The Skates of Uncle Richard a Coretta Scott King Honor. In addition, she won a Newbery Honor in 1996 for Yolonda’s Genius.

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    Reviews for Yolonda's Genius

    3.5/5

    59 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Yolanda is big for her age, but she knows how to handle herself when the 'whale' jokes happen. She's smart but surly, and she doesn't really have any friends. Her little brother is quiet and has trouble reading, but Yolanda becomes convinced that he is a genius with their father's old harmonica, so she sets out to create a scheme that will convince her mother he needs special schooling to foster his gift.There were things I really appreciated about this book, but then there were others that I really didn't. From the start, I didn't at all like Yolanda's character; I assumed that the story was traveling along the 'closed-off and prone-to-roughness kid learns to open up and empathize' theme so prevalent in Newbery Honor books, but Yolanda remains fairly selfish, unsympathizing, and unsympathetic throughout. The ending was abrupt and too pat, with a last-minute attempt to make Yolanda seem as if she has changed (although not done well enough for me to buy it). There are also a few threads to the story that fail to connect by the end, which leaves the whole thing feeling incomplete. And then the narrator made some strange choices in the character-voice department, making one fifth-grade girl sound like an old diner waitress with a decades-long smoking habit. Strange.All this is too bad, really, because of the good things here: Yolanda's little brother and his musical abilities are nicely painted, especially in contrast to his struggles with reading and speaking. It seems clear that he's on the autism scale, and although his mother doesn't seem to want to admit that, he finds a strong ally in a speech therapist at school, and that relationship (although not completely fleshed out) is nicely portrayed. Also, Yolanda's family is made up of her mother and her aunt, who are self-made black women from Chicago and are easily members of the upper-middle class there. What I love about this is that it's presented as no big deal, as in clearly achievable to the point that it's not something to make the focus of the story. Most Middle Grade books featuring black families seem to revolve around those families living in poor neighborhoods and struggling financially, and those stories are important, yes, but it's also important to show other possibilities and other realities to young readers of color. I want them to live in a world in which successful women of color are so commonplace that that idea takes a far back seat to the rest of the story in the books those young readers read. So I'd like to see more of this, but I'd also like this particular story to live up to this background setting.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book, but I was turned off by how mean Yolonda could be. She's very mean to a girl who wants to be her friend, Shirley. She does take wonderful care of her brother, Andrew, and recognizes that he's a genius. He plays on his harmonica and imitates all the sounds; bacon frying, Yolonda laughing. But the real story starts when some of the junior high pushers brake his harmonica. The mother thinks that he'd broken it himself, and it irritated me that she never found out who really broke it. Yolonda gets him a new harmonica, and finds out the truth about who broke it. (I really didn't like that she didn't tell the mother about who broke it!) And then Yolonda comes up with a plan to have Chicago Blues recognize his genius. I give this book three and a half stars.
    • 2/5
      In this book, there was a girl named Yolanda who has a brother who supposedly is a genius on the harmonica, but no one knows this except her. Yolanda must get her brother noticed by everyone else. Throughout the book, Yolanda learns what it means to be a genius. It means to be smart, but also to be able to take old material and turn into something new. In a way, Yolanda is also a genius because of the way she encourages her brother to play the harmonica well again, and how she gets him noticed.It wasn't my favorite book, but it might be good for anyone who likes realistic fiction.
    • 5/5
      A single mother moves her children from the city to the suburbs to escape the usual city problems of drugs and violence. They find they have problems to overcome in the suburbs as well.