Piece Comment

Review of Grandmother


The strength of this story (like many other youth radio pieces) is the voice of the narrator. Monique is straightforward and feisty. Even when she?s rattling off statistics she sounds down to earth.

Like the other Youth Voices stories I?ve listened to ?Grandmother? starts off with a personal story (about the reporter?s family) then uses that to illustrate a larger issue, in this case, teenagers living with grandparents.

?Grandmother? does a good job within that structure. The ?experts? in this story add depth and they also talk like regular people.

However, I would rather hear a story that went more into depth on Monique?s family, and used the experts as support, rather than the other way around. I was left wanting to know much more about her, her cousin and grandmother. Why does her cousin live with her grandmother (this is alluded to but not fully explained)? Where are his parents? Why did he get in trouble with the police? What changes did her grandmother make after she found out the cousin thought he had too much freedom?

That said, this is a very strong, polished story that is ready to air as is.