Jason Reynolds is pivoting to audio for his next literary project.
The author, known for his award-winning middle-grade and young adult books, will release Soundtrack this spring, Listening Library announced in a news release. The audiobook publisher says that Reynolds’ story “shows us a found family coming of age in a wonderfully complex city.”
Reynolds, the former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is known for books including When I Was the Greatest, Long Way Down, and Look Both Ways. His most recent release, Twenty-Four Seconds From Now…, was published last October, and in January it won the Coretta Scott King Author Book Award.
Soundtrack, set in early 2000s New York, will follow Stuy, a young Black teenager who wants to follow in the footsteps of his mom, a punk–rock drummer, and forms a band that finds success busking in the city’s subways.
The audiobook will feature a cast of 14 voice actors and an original score by composer Justin Ellington.
“I’m excited that the story I wrote years ago finally gets to be experienced through a medium I never imagined,” Reynolds said in a statement. “It’s a story that celebrates the creative genius of children, especially those who are willing to express themselves at all costs.”
Soundtrack is scheduled for release on June 3.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
