This Way Home

Gr 9 Up—After a great junior season, Elijah and his friends Michael and Dylan look forward to a state basketball championship and college ball for Elijah. But first they want to enjoy their summer, including streetball at the Battleground and, for Elijah, a job working for Banks, a dour veteran with a smart and beautiful daughter, Carlie. But one friend, Michael, begins to change and brings the boys $400 basketball shoes and shirts with Blood Street Nation's logo on them. After Elijah, his friends, and his friends' mothers insist they wear their own clothes and not the gang clothes for the finals of a local tournament, Dylan is shot dead in front of his house. With the help of Banks and his daughter, can Elijah break free of the gang? Narrator J.D. Jackson builds tension through the use of strategic pauses and a different-sounding voice for Elijah's inner thoughts. The audiobook's pacing is appropriate, moves along quickly during action scenes, and gives listeners time to figure out answers to problems posed by Banks for Elijah to solve.