Product Description

As one of three hearing daughters of deaf parents, 12-year-old Gussie Davis is expected to be a proper representative of Saint Jude's Church for the Deaf in Birmingham, Alabama, which is run by her father. So when Gussie starts to hum through signed services in the summer of 1948, Reverend Davis assumes she merely wants to sing out loud and sends her to a regular church downtown. But Gussie's behavior worsens, and she is not allowed to go on a much-anticipated trip; instead, she must help her father at the Alabama School for the Deaf. Rebelling against the strict rules of the school, Gussie finally confronts the difficulties and prejudices encountered by the deaf community, all while still trying to find her own identity in the worlds of both the hearing and the deaf. Drawing on firsthand accounts of her mother's own childhood with deaf parents, Delia Ray provides an inside look at the South in the 1940s. Lively humor, unforgettable characters, and meticulous research combine to make this a standout novel that offers keen insight into what it means to be hearing in a deaf world. Author's note.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1469363 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-17
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .99" h x 6.48" w x 8.36" l, .93 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–Twelve-year-old Gussie Davis, the hearing daughter of deaf parents in 1948 Birmingham, AL, is feeling rebellious. She sings out loud during the mass at St. Jude's Church for the Deaf, where her father is the minister; when her parents send her to the hearing church, she skips out of Sunday school and uses her collection money to buy sodas; and she steals an old love letter from Miss Grace, one of her parents' boarders. Because of her actions, her father won't let her take a much-loved trip to her aunt in Texas and instead involves her in his missionary efforts at a black deaf church and with supporting the use of sign language at the Alabama School for the Deaf. Gussie gradually comes to terms with her parents' deafness and her place in the world. An excess of subplots–including her foray into popularity, her relationship with an eccentric boarder, the lost-love tale of a deaf boarder, and befriending a colored deaf boy–renders the story a bit difficult to follow, but the exploration of Gussie's feelings toward her parents and the hearing world, which she is part of and simultaneously at odds with, is heartfelt.–Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD
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From Booklist
Gr. 4-7. Under typical circumstances, Gussie wouldn't get away with humming loudly in church, but as the daughter of deaf parents (her father is the minister of the deaf congregation), she assumes only her sisters know her misdeed. She is wrong, of course, and a hearing visitor outs her to her parents. Even so, Gussie continues to misbehave in this quietly humorous story, inspired by tales about Ray's mother's childhood with deaf parents. The setting is Birmingham, Alabama, in the summer of 1948, and the hardships and prejudices faced by the hearing impaired are displayed against a backdrop of a pre-civil rights South. The prose doesn't always sing, but Gussie's awakening to the world around her, the chorus of characters, and the family dynamics will keep readers interested. A chart of the manual alphabet will help kids decode the symbols used to finger-spell the chapter titles in the book. Cindy Dobrez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Delia Ray is the author of GHOST GIRL, which has been nominated on four state lists in Oklahoma, Kansas, South Carolina, and Missouri. Her new novel is based on her mother's experiences growing up as a hearing child with deaf parents. The author lives in Iowa City, Iowa.