5 stars
| A wonderfully written book that explores various aspects of race as well as family, religion, acceptance, differences and similarities, hope, and deafness/hard of hearing. The book maintains a great balance of simplicity and beauty, of childhood and moving into adulthood. The story is an interesting look at young people discovering their identities and how they connect and relate to others. The narration of the story is fairly simple. It is written in a very natural way that young readers may find appealing. Despite the simplicity of language, it deals with complex ideas and helps connect various issues in an understandable way. One aspect that I especially enjoyed was the exploration of similarities and differences throughout. Whether it was through being seen as white or black, deaf/hard of hearing or hearing, religious or non-religious, the novel does a great job working to break down those separating barriers and showing the relatedness and interconnection between all. While differences are shown, the emphasis is on similarities. I also thought the novel did a good job showing some aspects of deaf culture by describing a few signs, mentioning the difficulties of lipreading, signing and speaking at the same time, and showing how Sean did and experienced things differently without presenting it as a disability or something he fought against. It was very natural in showing how Frannie and Sean were different, such as how they experienced music, but not that one way was better or the right way. A fantastic read that is quick and simple, yet complex in its exploration of identity and similarities. Goodreads |