
Free Lunch
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Narrated by:
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Ramon De Ocampo
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By:
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Rex Ogle
About this listen
A distinctive new voice: Rex Ogle's story of starting middle school on the free lunch program is timely, heartbreaking, and true. Free Lunch is the story of Rex Ogle's first semester in sixth grade. Rex and his baby brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies, and Rex was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, Rex's is a compelling story of a more profound hunger - that of a child for his parents' love and care.
Compulsively listenable, beautifully crafted, and authentically told with the voice and point of view of a sixth-grade kid, Free Lunch is a remarkable debut by a gifted storyteller.
©2019 Rex Ogle (P)2019 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Outstanding, gracious writing and a clear eye for the penetrating truth. A mighty portrait of poverty amid cruelty and optimism.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
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Story
One hot summer afternoon, Rex Ogle’s sexuality is found out and his father gives him an ultimatum: you can be gay, or you can live here, but not both—and you have twenty-four hours to decide. Rex desperately hopes for a reprieve that doesn’t come, and the following day, he leaves. With no place to go, he drives to New Orleans, where he has the phone number of a man he met briefly and kissed once.
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Wonderful Author
- By Rebecca on 01-31-25
By: Rex Ogle
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Four Eyes
- Four Eyes, Book 1
- By: Rex Ogle
- Narrated by: Benjamin Valic
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixth grade isn't as great as Rex thought it would be. He's the only kid who hasn't had a growth spurt, and the bullies won't let him forget it. His closest friend is unreliable, at best. And there's a cute girl in his class who he can't stop thinking about. With so much going on, everything is a blur—including Rex's vision! So when he discovers that he needs glasses, and his family can only afford the ugliest pair in the store, any hope Rex had of fitting in goes completely out of focus.
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(READ THIS REVIEW) DO NOT BUY! THIS BOOK IS TOO GOOD FOR ANYONE!
- By asdf on 05-28-25
By: Rex Ogle
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Westfallen
- By: Ann Brashares, Ben Brashares
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, André Santana
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry, Frances, and Lukas are neighbors, and they used to be best friends. But in middle school Frances got emo, Lukas went to private school, and Henry just felt left behind. When they come together again for the funeral of a pet gerbil, the three ex-friends make a mind-blowing discovery: a radio, buried in Henry’s backyard, that allows them to talk to another group of kids in the same town...in the same backyard...eighty years in the past.
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Great for middle grades and adults too!
- By Jennifer L. on 01-18-25
By: Ann Brashares, and others
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A Thousand Questions
- By: Saadia Faruqi
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan, Reena Dutt
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Mimi is not thrilled to be spending her summer in Karachi, Pakistan, with grandparents she’s never met. Secretly, she wishes to find her long-absent father, and plans to write to him in her beautiful new journal. The cook's daughter, Sakina, still hasn't told her parents that she'll be accepted to school only if she can improve her English test score - but then, how could her family possibly afford to lose the money she earns working with her Abba in a rich family's kitchen?
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Beautiful bicultural story
- By Michael and Nancy on 09-05-24
By: Saadia Faruqi
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The Book of Boy
- By: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Boy has always been relegated to the outskirts of his small village. With a large hump on his back, a mysterious past, and a tendency to talk to animals, he is often mocked and abused by the other young people in his town. Until the arrival of a shadowy pilgrim named Secondus. Impressed with Boy's climbing and jumping abilities, Secondus engages Boy as his servant, pulling him into an expedition across Europe to gather the seven precious relics of Saint Peter.
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What an adventure!!
- By Dana on 05-28-20
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The End of Poverty
- Economic Possibilities for Our Time
- By: Jeffrey Sachs
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hilgartner
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed by Time as one of the world's hundred most influential people, Jeffrey D. Sachs is renowned for his work around the globe advising economies in crisis. Now a classic of its genre, The End of Poverty distills more than 30 years of experience to offer a uniquely informed vision of the steps that can transform impoverished countries into prosperous ones. Sachs lays out a clear conceptual map of the world economy. In this 10th anniversary edition, Sachs presents an extensive new foreword assessing the progress of the past decade.
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A Call for Africa
- By Mr Conway on 08-03-12
By: Jeffrey Sachs
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Taking Flight
- From War Orphan to Star Ballerina
- By: Elaine DePrince, Michaela DePrince
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Michaela DePrince was known as girl no. 27 at the orphanage where she was abandoned at a young age and tormented as a "devil child" for a skin condition that makes her skin appear spotted. But it was at the orphanage that Michaela would find a picture of a beautiful ballerina en pointe that would help change the course of her life. At the age of four, Michaela was adopted by an American family who encouraged her love of dancing and enrolled her in classes.
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Dreams Carried on the Harmattan Winds
- By Vicky on 05-16-19
By: Elaine DePrince, and others
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Echo
- By: Pam Muñoz Ryan
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Mark Bramhall, David deVries, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Audie Award, Middle Grade, 2016. Lost and alone in the forbidden Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each become sinterwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives, binding them by an invisible thread of destiny. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together.
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One of the best audio productions I have heard
- By tru britty on 07-28-15
By: Pam Muñoz Ryan
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Heart of a Samurai
- By: Margi Preus
- Narrated by: James Yaegashi
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Praised as “a timeless tale” by Booklist in a starred review, this Newbery Honor book by Margi Preus explores the cultural divide between the East and West circa 1841. When Manjiro, a Japanese teenager, is thrown from his fishing boat during a storm, he’s rescued by an American whaling ship. Befriending the ship’s captain, Manjiro decides to travel with the crew to Massachusetts. But years later, when Manjiro attempts to return to his homeland, he’s imprisoned as an outsider
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Wonderful !
- By Kimberly on 02-21-16
By: Margi Preus
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The Wednesday Wars
- By: Gary D. Schmidt
- Narrated by: Joel Johnstone
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like Holling - he’s sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam.
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A Happy Book
- By David Tousey on 11-01-20
By: Gary D. Schmidt
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Punching the Air
- By: Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam
- Narrated by: Ethan Herisse
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. "Boys just being boys" turns out to be true only when those boys are white. At just sixteen years old, Amal's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
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Must read for educators
- By Sara W on 01-17-21
By: Ibi Zoboi, and others
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From the Desk of Zoe Washington
- By: Janae Marks
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Zoe Washington isn’t sure what to write. What does a girl say to the father she’s never met, hadn’t heard from until his letter arrived on her 12th birthday, and who’s been in prison for a terrible crime? A crime he says he never committed. Could Marcus really be innocent? Zoe is determined to uncover the truth. Even if it means hiding his letters and her investigation from the rest of her family. Everyone else thinks Zoe’s worrying about doing a good job at her bakery internship
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Don't judge based on rumors
- By Reign_awakening on 05-23-20
By: Janae Marks
Narrator was awesome
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Grown-up, sad/emotional, beautiful
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the narrative was amazing
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The content.
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Can’t stop listening
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Perspective
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really sad
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Perspective Changer
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This is about as real as you can get
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Amazing
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