Length3h 50m
About this audiobook
Gary Soto writes that when he was five "what I knew best was at ground level." In this lively collection of short essays, Soto takes his listener to a ground-level perspective, recreating in vivid detail the sights, sounds, smells, and textures he knew growing up in his Fresno, California, neighborhood. The "things" of his boyhood tie it all together: his Buddha "splotched with gold," the taps of his shoes, and the "engines of sparks that lived beneath my soles," his worn tennies smelling of "summer grass, asphalt, the moist sock breathing the defeat of baseball." The child's world is made up of small things—small, very important things.
A respected poet and an innovator of the short essay form, Soto offers nearly snapshot-like glances of moments unique in form yet universal in content. Growing up Chicano and male, Soto gives us a rag-tag race through his neighborhood, speaking equally as well to the childhood experiences of us all.
Anyone who remembers the fifties or who knows anything about growing up in the fifties will relish Soto's rich poetic descriptions. Teachers and students of writing will relish Soto's rich poetic descriptions. Teachers and students of writing will also find inspiration in these tightly knit and highly imaginative stories. Soto offers much more than humorous and poignant recollections; he wraps each memory in a poetry that lingers pleasantly in the reader's mind.
Audiobook details
GenreChildren's Literature
Length3 hrs 50 mins
Narrated byDaniel Duque-Estrada
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJul 1, 2013
LanguageEnglish
More from Gary Soto
Crazy WeekendGary Soto2h 48m$15
Summer on WheelsGary Soto3h$15
Instant WinnerGary Soto4h 51m$14
Baseball in April and Other StoriesGary Soto2h 48m$15
Off and RunningGary Soto2h 34m$15
Accidental LoveGary Soto3h 49m$15
Warriors Super Edition: Crookedstar's PromiseErin Hunter11h 50m$29 · $0.00
Frog and Toad Audio CollectionArnold Lobel1h 32m$16 · $0.00
The Elementia Chronicles #3: Herobrine's MessageSean Fay Wolfe19h 18m$40 · $0.00
Trapped in a Video Game: The Complete SeriesDustin Brady13h 27m$23
Big Nate Blasts OffLincoln Peirce2h 4m$16 · $0.00
Because My Destiny AwaitsCorwin McGinnis2h 40m$15
Wild Rescuers: Escape to the MesaStacyPlays3h 15m$18 · $0.00
A Wolf Called FireRosanne Parry4h 7m$7 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman3h 2m$18 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal7h 25m$24 · $0.00
L. M. Montgomery – Premium Collection: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry & MemoirsLucy Maud Montgomery155h 49m$2 · $0.00
Eyes That Kiss in the CornersJoanna Ho5m$4 · $0.00
What Do You Say, Little Blue Truck? Sound BookAlice Schertle4m$4 · $0.00
Maddi's FridgeLois Brandt, Vin Vogel11m$5 · $0.00
The First Cat in Space and the Wrath of the PaperclipMac Barnett1h 29m$16 · $0.00
Swallows & Amazons (ALL 12 Adventure Novels)Arthur Ransome135h 57m$2 · $0.00
L. FRANK BAUM - Ultimate Collection: Complete Wizard of Oz Series, The Aunt Jane's Nieces CollectionL. Frank Baum205h 55m$2 · $0.00
The Last Musketeer #3: Double CrossStuart Gibbs5h 16m$24 · $0.00
Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 12m$12 · $0.00
My Weird School Special: We're Red, Weird, and Blue! What Can We Do?Dan Gutman1h 4m$13 · $0.00
You may also like
A BOY'S TOWN ADVENTURES: The Flight of Pony Baker, Boy Life, A Boy's Town & Years of My YouthWilliam Dean Howells24h 21m$2 · $0.00
A BOY'S TOWN ADVENTURES - Complete Series (Illustrated)William Dean Howells24h 21m$2 · $0.00
Of Human Bondage (The Unabridged Autobiographical Novel)William Somerset Maugham28h 24m$2 · $0.00
What happened to Inger Johanne, as told by herselfDikken Zwilgmeyer3h 22m$2 · $0.00
Kindred Psyches and Strangers – 4 Classic Fiction NovelsGeorge Eliot, Louis Couperus, David Herbert Lawrence, Louis Marie-Anne Couperus63h 19m$1
A Story Teller's StorySherwood Anderson11h 20m$20
An American ChildhoodAnnie Dillard, Janet Stevens8h 28m$17
Personal Memoirs of U. S. GrantUlysses S. Grant30h 36m$2 · $0.00
The Story of Charlotte’s WebMichael Sims7h 25m$22 · $0.00
One Day More A Play In One ActJoseph Conrad56m$2.30
Peter Parley's Own StorySamuel G. Goodrich9h 24m$2.30
The Getting of WisdomHenry Handel Richardson7h 19m$17
Thanksgiving StoriesHarriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Andrew Lang, George Eliot, Annie Hamilton Donnell, Eugene Field, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hezekiah Butterworth, Edward Everett Hale, Sarah Orne Jewett, Susan Coolidge, Maud Lindsay, Olive Thorne Miller, Winthrop Packard, Kate Upson Clark, Alfred Gatty, Albert F. Blaisdell, Eleanor H. Porter, C. A. Stephens, J. T. Trowbridge, Eleanor L. Skinner, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Rose Terry Cooke, Edna Payson Brett, Phila Butler Bowman, Katherine Grace Hulbert, Agnes Carr, Isabel Gordon Curtis, P. J. Stahl, Sheldon C. Stoddard, Francis K. Ball, R. K. Munkittrick, E. S. Brooks, Emily Hewitt Leland, Fannie Wilder Brown, Alice Wheildon, Pauline Shackleford Colyar, H. R. Schoolcraft, L. B. Pingree, Sophie Swet24h$2 · $0.00
Complete Works of Henry James: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Essays, Autobiography and LettersHenry James742h 51m$3 · $0.00
A Song Called HomeSara Zarr7h 37m$26 · $0.00
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol 23Robert Louis Stevenson13h 32m$2.30
Inger Johanne's lively doingsDikken Zwilgmeyer5h 20m$2 · $0.00
The MorgesonsElizabeth Stoddard12h 9m$2 · $0.00
Bennie Ben CreeArthur Colton2h 13m$1 · $0.00
ChildhoodLeo Tolstoy4h 9m$2.30