The Girl With the Louding Voice

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Dare, Abi, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Dare, Abi
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Dare, Abi	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Dare, Abi	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"A powerful, emotional debut novel told in the unforgettable voice of a young Nigerian woman who is trapped in a life of servitude but determined to get an education so that she can escape and choose her own future. Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a "louding voice"-the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni's father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir. When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing. But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can-in a whisper, in song, in broken English-until she is heard"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
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Summary / Annotation
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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A breath of fresh air submitted by adimarzo on July 20, 2022, 10:12pm This book drew me in with its strong characters and engaging story right away. The main character, Adunni, is smart, spunky, resourceful and funny. I loved the use of dialect to reflect her growth through the book. Adunni is one of my favorite book characters.

Work to read in the beginning, but absolutely worth it submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on August 19, 2023, 1:11pm It took me more than a minute to become accustomed to the narrator’s voice in this amazing novel. Adunni is a Nigerian girl narrating her experiences in English as her second language, and that’s made clear through odd word choices, wrong verb endings, and missing parts of speech. Basically, it was work for my brain to read this, because it couldn’t just skim by recognizing how language would work.

But it was worth it. Adunni’s story of losing her mother, being (essentially) sold into marriage at 14 as a third wife, and then being trafficked is outstanding. Her emotional and physical journey is solid and compelling. Her loneliness is heartbreaking. Her allies are worth cheering for. The book is a great balance between seeing systems and seeing individuals.

Highly recommended, and a great book to end my reading year on.