Silent Journey

by Carl Watson, Andrew Bosley (Illustrator)

Overview

Scott Schroeder dreams of a day when he and his father can have a home of their own. Following an accident that took his mother's life eight years before, doctors discovered Scott was suddenly deaf. Blessed with being an accomplished gymnast and skilled at signing and reading lips, Scott's biggest challenge is convincing others he is able to do all the same things as those in the hearing world. Picking up on conversations he observes along the way, Scott figures out a big family secret concerning his father and uncle and makes his mind up to play a part in their reconciliation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947159341
Publisher:	Red Chair Press
Publication date:	08/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	277,777
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	9 - 10 Years

About the Author

Carl Watson is an award-winning author. He has taught elementary and middle school language arts and helped write a social studies syllabus for Fort Worth, TX schools. He currently lives in Texas.
Andrew Bosley is a concept artist specializing in illustration for gaming and animation. He earned a BFA from San Jose State University and lives and now works in Arizona.

Editorial Reviews

2020-06-16
Thirteen-year-old Scott wants a place to belong, just like the abandoned dog he befriends one summer.

Ever since Scott’s mother died seven years ago, he has been deaf. A skilled lip reader, he communicates with his father using American Sign Language, but when his father leaves him with his stern grandmother in order to take an extended business trip, he struggles to connect. The stray dog becomes solace, traveling with Scott when he is then sent to live with an estranged uncle. Some might see Scott’s condition as conversion deafness, but this is not a book about the experience of living with this rare disorder, never named in the book. It is a book about a boy who becomes deaf after trauma, then is cured of his deafness as if by magic with a second trauma. Early in the story, Scott wishes that God would give him back his hearing. Instead of learning to accept his hearing loss, he is granted his wish. Scott’s use of ASL is depicted as a crutch that keeps him from bravely using his voice. In addition to this overused and offensive depiction of deafness, the narrative’s pace and tone are uneven. Watson raises the stakes exponentially in the last act, and the ending is surprisingly tragic. Scott and all the important characters are presumed white.

Authentic depictions of Deaf child characters are vanishingly few; this does not add to that small number. (Fiction. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews