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Blackbird

By: Jennifer Lauck
Narrated by: Jennifer Lauck
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Publisher's summary

With the startling emotional immediacy of a fractured family photo album, Jennifer Lauck's incandescent memoir is the story of an ordinary girl growing up at the turn of the 1970's and the truly extraordinary circumstances of a childhood lost. Wrenching and unforgettable, Blackbird will carry your heart away.

The house on Mary Street was home to Jennifer; her older brother B.J.; their hardworking father, who smelled like aftershave and read her Snow White; and their mother, who called her little daughter Sunshine and embraced Jackie Kennedy's sense of style. Through a child's eyes, the skies of Carson City were forever blue, and life was perfect- a world of Barbies, Bewitched, and the Beatles.

Even her mother's pain from her mysterious illness could be patted away with hairspray, powder, and a kiss on the cheek... But soon, everything Jennifer has come to love and rely on begins to crumble, sending her on a roller coaster of loss and loneliness. In a world unhinged by tragedy, where beautiful mothers die and families are warped by more than they can bear, a young girl must transcend a landscape of pain and mistreatment to discover her richest resource: her own unshakable will to survive.

©2000 Jennifer Lauck. All Rights Reserved (P)2000 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Critic reviews

  • 2000 Winner of Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award: Biography/Memoir

"The unblinking look of one child at a hard world. Written gorgeously and movingly." (Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes)

What listeners say about Blackbird

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Beautifully, brilliant punch in the gut.

What did you like best about Blackbird? What did you like least?

The images are so vivid I was completely present for every heartbreaking instant.

Have you listened to any of Jennifer Lauck’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Jennifer Lauck is an amazing presenter with a knack for invoking gales of laughter with a bucket full of tears chaser.

Do you think Blackbird needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

There is definitely much more to this tale yet to be written.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Such a touching story

Great read. Only Jennifer could read this. So touching to see through child's eyes and capture exactly how a child at that age thinks.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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moving

I found the book to begin a bit slowly. But, when the author's life begins to fall apart, I was drawn into a family drama that amazed me. That one can survive, seemingly intact, from so many difficulties, the indifference of some, and the cruelty of a few affirms my belief in the resilience of people.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Rated R for language, drugs

If I had known how many times the "F" word was used in the context of this book, I would have never purchased it! Please forewarn the consumer. Not everyone in the world approves of off color language. It shows just how intelligent and refined you are.

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