Series ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
Back of the Yard: A Great Depression Family Saga
Meg Lelvis · 2024
🎙 Narrated by Sara Moser Bartlett
71/100
👍 Worth It
A quietly moving Depression-era Chicago story that reviewers praised for its natural dialogue and believable characters, handling a mother's mental illness and a family's grief with real care. It leans heavy emotionally but stays away from anything explicit, and faith and family bonds carry the story through. Sara Moser Bartlett narrates; there's no specific word on her performance, but the story itself earns its place.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: depicts a tragic childhood loss, a parent's mental illness/incapacitation, and poverty — emotionally heavy though not explicit. We still scored it 71; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
▶ Listen to a sample
🎙 Narration: unknown Sara Moser Bartlett narrates for Beacon Audiobooks; no independent performance evaluation found.
🎧 Listen free with an Audible trial ↗ Find it on Audible ↗📚 In print ↗📱 On Kindle ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety65
Substance / usefulness75
Craft & writing75
Originality60
Evidence & accuracy65
Hype vs delivers65
Age-fit60
Human-eye read75
Penny’s verdict71
Cross-pollinate