Book Musings: Deaf Child Crossing

Deaf Child Crossing

I wanted this book to be good, I really did. The premise is good, a middle-grade novel about two girls forming a friendship when one of them happens to be Deaf, but the execution wasn't at all great, mostly I think due to editing. There were two visible mistakes in the book--a shift tense and a typo "I romise"-- and the writing was clunky, full of telling and -ly adjectives and "Megan felt." Also, the narrator speaks down to the audience as well as pointlessly referring to the parents by their names, taking the reader out of the child's point-of-view. 

As for the disability issues, on the one hand the Deaf child Megan does have more to her than her disability, but on the other hand her problems stem from her disability and her reactions to it. She doesn't want help, fine, but if we saw this transcend into something else it might have made for a better book. While I do think the issue book is important in most cases, and it could have been a good book showing able-bodied kids they could have a perfectly norma--and extraordinary--friendship with a kid who is Deaf it would be good, but the writing makes it not worth it. 

Happy Memorial Day

Both my grandfathers fought in WWII, but the meaning of military holidays didn't really mean anything to me until this year. Now, two years almost to the day since my grandfather died, I have a much bigger reason to care about our troops. My oldest nephew Billy, who is four years younger than me and one of my best friends, is in basic training for the US Army.

He's hoping to get stationed in Germany or Japan, but I and the rest of my family worry nonetheless. I've never been extremely pro-military, but in this case they're giving a young man who didn't have certainty about what he wanted to do a path, something to strive for, and for that I'm grateful.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I'll be in the pool thinking of the blond kid who used to play cops and robbers with me out there. Who helped me snake to the front of every line to get the new Harry Potter book and who is now out in the woods in Missouri somewhere being taught how to turn being a great boy into being a great man.

THE SPLENDOR FALLS WINNER!!!

RANDOM.ORG has chosen the winner of TheSplendor Falls and it is....

*drumroll*


BEE!!!

WOO!! Congratulations! Reply to the email I'm going to send you with your address and preference of Amazon or Powell's.

In other news...

TRAILERS FOR THE NEW MUPPET MOVIE!

Friday Five!

1. Now that BEA is over, I'm deciding to force myself to be more okay with the I'm-not-in-NYC factor of this summer. If I hadn't been here I'd be missing some of baby bro's gems,  such as yesterday when his daycare provider said, "Jacob, do you love me?" With the biggest grin on his face he said, "No," and shrieked with laughter at her fake-hurt. Obviously, both parties knew how much he loves her. She's been taking care of him since he was six, so his mischief was adorable.

2. Yesterday, I read Knowing Jesse a memoir by Marianne Leonne an actress (wife of Chris Cooper) whose seventeen-year-old son had cerebral palsy. Jesse died in 2005 due to complications from epilepsy, and what makes me the saddest about this is that the way his family fought to have him educated, and how much of an intelligent young man he seems to have been, would have probably led to him being a shining example of what a disabled adult can accomplish. As it is, his story shows how far the world has come in perception of people with severe disabilities, and how far we have to go.

3. These updates to the Chicago Manual of Style are pretty interesting, particularly the one about possessives. I've preferred adding the extra "'s" to words ending in -s forever, so glad to see someone else approves.

4. Below is a video of something I believe to be one of the coolest things ever. A computer program that is beginning to be able to recognize signs and translate them into words. The possibilities this could lead to for the Deaf are amazing!



5. The winner of The Splendor Falls will be announced tomorrow. Comment here to win!

The Point...

I made a post on R-Word Awareness Day about spreading the word to end the word, but this new PSA really hits the point home, in my opinion. Slurs are slurs, as the video points out.

I'm behind in Glee--planning to marathon it after my surgery this summer--but when I watched the first two and a half seasons over Christmas I was generally very impressed with their treatment of disabilities. Sometimes I balked at choices, but in general I appreciate the way they integrate disability--sometimes it's the main focus of an episode, and hey newsflash world: THAT'S OKAY.

Sometimes my disability is the main focus of a day. A week. A month. Sometimes it fades into the background, like any other facet of life.

Like the difficulties of being every other minority.

And that's what people on either side of the inclusion argument oftentimes fail to see.

RTW: Inspiration

Today's YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday question is: Who in your life has most inspired your writing?

My parents have encouraged my writing, no doubt, but I think the "inspired" has to go to the wonderful girls who have been the ones loving my stories at different points in my life.

Ambrelle in high school, the one who would track me down before first period every day in high school asking for whatever pages I had written the night before.

Laura, who has been with my current project all the way through, who I could talk things out with and who introduced me to the books of my idol, Sarah Dessen.

Kendra my facebook "husband" who has been known to send me emails about how much she loves my writing at the moment before I think I might give up. Her faith in me and my writing keeps me going.

Allison, the newest addition to the group, who let my works get past her usual dislike of contemporary fiction books and who probably has had the most influence in the way I think about the book.

Amazing girls, all of them, and I couldn't do without any of them!


Don't forget to comment here to enter to win the Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement Moore!

Book Musings: The Demon's Lexicon

The Demon's Lexicon

I'm not a huge fantasy reader, honestly. I was when I was younger, but the past few years I haven't been as into it. That said, I loved the Demon's Lexicon, as well as the second book in the trilogy The Demon's Covenant.

I think what I took away most from the books was how effectively Sarah Rees Brennan used the third person. It's traditional in fantasy, and I tend to prefer first, but I felt so close to the narrators of both books--particularly Nick--that the POV was a benefit not a drawback. Also, it's quite something to say one is close to Nick when you discover the truths about him that come out later.

Alan is one of the secondary characters, and he is SO well-fleshed out. You love him, but sometimes you want to slap him in the head because having been in his brother Nick's head, you see what he's missing. The way SRB pulls this off works so well.

There are times when I think a lot of drama could be avoided if characters would flat out say something, but that's life.

To deal with the disability element--because that's what I do--Alan's injured leg is dealt with wonderfully, and the reversal of a certain trope I hate made me very happy. I didn't necessarily like that Nick's dyslexia is sort of explained by who he is--shades of Percy Jackson--but on the other hand it adds a layer to his character, as well as sparks later interactions, that helped me get into the story. Catch-22.

The dialogue is witty and fantabulous. Can't wait for the third book next month!

I had trouble following some of the battle scenes, but I always do, so it's on me.