Book Reviews

For Children: A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz / Illustrated by Catia Chien

General Overview:

A Boy and a Jaguar is a picture book perfect for children in first grade through fourth grade, but it is a joy to read for everyone who picks it up! It is an autobiography of Rabinowitz’s experiences growing up as “a stutterer.” While Alan was unable to speak without a stutter when talking with other people, he could speak fluently when speaking to animals. While visiting the zoo as a child, he promises a caged jaguar that, if he ever finds his voice, he will help to protect them. As an adult, Alan is a scientist and conservationist, who winds up in Belize where he convinces the Prime Minister to establish the world’s first jaguar preserve.

Critical Evaluation:

Alan struggles with thoughts that he is “broken” because of his stuttering. And as he gets older, and can manage his stuttering better, he still experiences this feeling of being “broken,” stating “I can speak, but nothing has changed on the inside.” But he presses on, chasing his dreams and working around the world in the name of saving animals from harm, overcoming his disability to convince the Prime Minister of Belize to create the world’s first jaguar sanctuary. This book will be very relatable to children in your library who may have learning or speech disabilities and will show them that perseverance and tenacity can lead to remarkable things in one’s life.

My Verdict:

This is a sweet book that children will enjoy at storytime or simply checking it out to read on their own! And it is a book for everyone – children who may not have learning or speech disabilities will be able to emphasize with Alan and see what it’s like to live in his shoes, and that is something that all children should learn about.

For Teens/Young Adults: True Biz by Sara Novic.

General Overview:

True Biz is an utterly unique novel; unlike anything I have ever read! The setting is the River Valley School for the Deaf, and the book follows the intersecting lives of the students and the staff as they navigate identity, language, community, and political pressures. The three main characters in the book are Charlie, Austin, and February. Charlie is a teenager who was born hearing but now deaf, having been raised with a failed cochlear implant and forbidden by her parents to learn American Sign Language (ASL). Struggling both academically and socially at her public school, her parents send her to River Valley, where she meets Austin. Austin is the most popular student at River Valley, having come from a multigenerational deaf family. He struggles with societal pressures because of a new baby sister who is born hearing. The third main character is February, the principal at River Valley who is not deaf, but comes from a family where her mother is deaf. February is fighting to keep the school open amid budget cuts and political threats.

Critical Evaluation:

As I mentioned above, True Biz is unlike any other novel I have ever read. Not only is the story captivating, but Novic also intertwines information on Deaf history and mythology, including the utopian land of Eyeth, where everything is designed for easy visual access, as well as the special qualities and differences between ASL and Black ASL, and the reasons why, for a time, primarily Black schools taught manual language. Throughout the book there are lessons on ASL, delving into specifics that you might not find in your typical ASL tutorial (like swear words). Reading a book where the majority of the characters are deaf was eye opening, and I felt like I was experiencing things through their eyes. As a hearing person, I appreciated the perspective that was provided by the author, through her characters’ eyes.

My Verdict:

Whether or not you know someone who is Deaf or you do not, this is a book that should be read by everyone. This book provides an immersive look into Deaf culture and the systemic barriers that the Deaf community faces, and is educational at the same time, providing ASL diagrams, history of the Deaf community, and real-world activism that some of the actions of the characters take part in, but I won’t say more as I don’t want to spoil the story. Pick this up and read it! And recommend it to your patrons – they’ll love it!

For Adults: So Lucky by Nicola Griffith.

General Overview:

Mara Tagarelli is a twenty-two-year-old, high-powered director of a nonprofit AIDS organization whose life drastically shifts when she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Mara loses her marriage, her physical stability (she was a black belt in karate prior to her diagnosis!) and any sense of control that she once had. Overnight she is experiencing the ways society marginalizes and endangers disabled people. When asked to leave her nonprofit, she throws herself into disability activism. All seems to be going well with her new passion, until, and I kid you not, a serial killer starts targeting people associated with her disability activist organization, and Mara believes her name is next on the list!

Critical Evaluation:

So Lucky is a powerful novel. Griffith eloquently, yet powerfully, makes the reader feel what it would feel like to experience this devastating diagnosis. Not only living with the fatigue and the pain of the disease, but also the subsequent feelings of helplessness, melancholy, and rage. Griffith makes the reader feel the sadness and rage that Mara feels, the feelings of invisibility, the feeling of being ignored, or being treated like a child, because of her disability. This is a story about fighting back (especially when the serial killer shows up on the scene!) and not accepting the narrative given to someone who is disabled. The book is a roller coaster of emotions, and it put me in the shoes of someone experiencing something that I can hardly imagine for myself, but Mara never expected it for herself either.

My Verdict:

This book is a semi-autobiographical novel by Griffith, who has MS herself, and her writing is a jolt to the system. The experience Mara faces being diagnosed with MS would be a page-turner in itself, but when she incorporates the psychological suspense of a serial killer being on the loose, she ramps up the novel to another level. I feel like I’m saying this a lot, but So Lucky was extremely powerful, and Griffith shows us what it means to rebuild a life after a life-changing diagnosis, and to claim your space in a world that prefers disabled people to disappear.

Picture Credits: Header and Footer pictures courtesy of iStock. Book Covers courtesy of Amazon.com.