Audiobooks by Shannon Gibney

When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology

'An emotion-filled collection.' —Kirkus Reviews Two teens take the stage and find their voice . . . A girl learns about her heritage and begins to find her community . . . A sister is haunted by the ghosts of loved ones lost . . . There is no universal adoption experience, and no two adoptees have the same story. This anthology for teens edited by Shannon Gibney and Nicole Chung contains a wide range of powerful, poignant, and evocative stories in a variety of genres. These tales from fifteen bestselling, acclaimed, and emerging adoptee authors genuinely and authentically reflect the complexity, breadth, and depth of adoptee experiences. This groundbreaking collection centers what it’s like growing up as an adoptee. These are stories by adoptees, for adoptees, reclaiming their own narratives.  With stories by: Kelley Baker Nicole Chung Shannon Gibney Mark Oshiro MeMe Collier Susan Harness       Meredith Ireland Mariama J. Lockington Lisa Nopachai Stefany Valentine Matthew Salesses Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom Eric Smith Jenny Heijun Wills Sun Yung Shin Foreword by Rebecca Carroll Afterword by JaeRan Kim, MSW, PhD Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Eric Smith, Jenny Heijun Wills, Kelley Baker, Lisa Nopachai, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Mariama J. Lockington, Mark Oshiro, Matthew Salesses, Meme Collier, Meredith Ireland, Nicole Chung, Shannon Gibney, Stefany Valentine, Sun Yung Shin, Susan Harness (Author), Angel Pean, David Lee Huynh, Delanna Studi, Elena Rey, Greta Jung, Karla Serrato (Narrator)

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The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption

Part memoir, part speculative fiction, The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be explores the often surreal experience of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee. Dream Country author Shannon Gibney returns with The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be, a book woven from her true story of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee and fictional story of Erin Powers, the name Shannon was given at birth, a child raised by a white, closeted lesbian.  At its core, the novel is a tale of two girls on two different timelines occasionally bridged by a mysterious portal and their shared search for a complete picture of their origins. Gibney surrounds that story with reproductions of her own adoption documents, letters, family photographs, interviews, medical records, and brief essays on the surreal absurdities of the adoptee experience. The end result is a remarkable portrait of an American experience rarely depicted in any form. * This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF of images, documents and resources from the book.

Shannon Gibney (Author), Shannon Gibney (Narrator)

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Dream Country

The heartbreaking story of five generations of young people from a single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom. 'Gut wrenching and incredible."- Sabaa Tahir #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes 'This novel is a remarkable achievement.'-Kelly Barnhill, New York Times bestselling author and Newbery medalist 'Beautifully epic.'-Ibi Zoboi, author American Street and National Book Award finalist Dream Country begins in suburban Minneapolis at the moment when seventeen-year-old Kollie Flomo begins to crack under the strain of his life as a Liberian refugee. He's exhausted by being at once too black and not black enough for his African American peers and worn down by the expectations of his own Liberian family and community. When his frustration finally spills into violence and his parents send him back to Monrovia to reform school, the story shifts. Like Kollie, readers travel back to Liberia, but also back in time, to the early twentieth century and the point of view of Togar Somah, an eighteen-year-old indigenous Liberian on the run from government militias that would force him to work the plantations of the Congo people, descendants of the African American slaves who colonized Liberia almost a century earlier. When Togar's section draws to a shocking close, the novel jumps again, back to America in 1827, to the children of Yasmine Wright, who leave a Virginia plantation with their mother for Liberia, where they're promised freedom and a chance at self-determination by the American Colonization Society. The Wrights begin their section by fleeing the whip and by its close, they are then the ones who wield it. With each new section, the novel uncovers fresh hope and resonating heartbreak, all based on historical fact. In Dream Country, Shannon Gibney spins a riveting tale of the nightmarish spiral of death and exile connecting America and Africa, and of how one determined young dreamer tries to break free and gain control of her destiny.

Shannon Gibney (Author), Bahni Turpin (Narrator)

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