Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That’s all that’s got me doing another post today, folks. (I was going to say this morning, but it’s 12:33, so I had to abandon that plan.) I’ve been putting off my review of Lynne Kelly’s Song for a Whale for weeks, and it’s not because it wasn’t good, because it was; the only reason it didn’t win the “what book(s) can I give my 12-year-old for Christmas” contest was because it was a little too sad for a little too long. Two of my girlie’s classmates were hit by a car on Halloween weekend; the boy who was in three of her classes died early that Monday morning, and the boy in band with her broke enough bones that he hasn’t yet returned to school (although she hears he’ll be coming back after Christmas break). She just can’t handle much sad right now, you know? and Iris’s plight in Song for a Whale tugs at your heartstrings.

Iris, you see, is deaf, and the ONLY deaf person in her school, which isolates her; her deaf grandfather passed away not so long ago, and her deaf grandmother has been too lost in her own grief to help Iris with hers. When she hears in her science class about a crossbreed whale who can’t communicate with any of the whales around him, it resonates so strongly with her that she becomes determined to find a way to help him know that he’s not alone. The quest that follows is a convoluted one, and while the end of it may be on the dramatic side, it more or less works in context. Iris’s isolation is hard to read for anyone, which is why I decided ‘not this year’ for my girlie, but as a parent, I found myself infuriated with Iris’s father AND mother. If your child is deaf, a)learn to communicate WELL with her, because it matters, and b)consider her social needs from her point of view. I wanted to smack them both.

Anyway. I’m fairly certain this is my last post of 2021, so I wish you a happy and safe new year; I’m off to exercise. See you in 2022!