Kaya: The Journey Begins

By: Janet Beeler Shaw

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia

Kaya’s adventure begins in the first book in her series.

Kaya knows in her heart that her beautiful Appaloosa mare, Steps High, is the fastest horse in the herd. But when boasting leads to a daring bareback race, Kaya pushes Steps High too hard. She puts herself and the horse in danger and earns a terrible nickname for being untrustworthy. Kaya vows to be a girl her horse and her people can trust. When enemy raiders storm Kaya’s village, she tries to save Steps High but gets taken captive herself, along with her sister. All Kaya can think of is escape, but how?

This audiobook includes a historical “Looking Back” section.

This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF containing a glossary of Nez Perce words heard throughout the story.

How everyone in her tribe was very nice<3!

I disliked how Kaya’s horse (Steps high) got taken away:( and what I liked was how she has siblings:)<3

Humanizing Disability

As a disabled fan of American Girl, the depiction of Speaking Rain, Kaya'aton'my's sister, is something I deeply appreciate. She's accommodated in order to be a contributing member of society, and is valued for what she can do. She isn't pushed to do things she isn't capable of by the adults, but they help her to learn skills that help her contribute. As for who she is, she's compassionate and loyal, always sticking by her sister even if Kaya's mistakes negatively affect her.

Good Story; Narration is Flat and Emotionless

The story itself is quite good; I had some minor issues with the changes created from retelling the original American Girl 6-book format into the 2-book format here, but overall it retained its original charm much better than I'd expected. The narration, however, is terrible.

Garcia speaks clearly and enunciates well, and some of the character voices she does are actually very good, but the narration itself sounded flat and emotionless. It reminded me of a bored adult reading a book to very young children and trying to force some excitement into their voice. My roommate literally asked me at one point if I was listening to an AI audiobook reading, and he wasn't joking. (He didn't even seem convinced when I told him it was a real VA.)

I thought about returning it, but I really wanted this title in audiobook form, and like I said the story itself is good, so I just decided to ignore it as much as I could. (I have the same complaints about the second book in the series, which is also read by Garcia.)