Read It UP!

Joey lost her hearing when she was six.  He father beat her so badly she went deaf.  She still has phantom sounds that roll around in her head sometimes.  Like her mom singing.  She is thirteen at the start of the novel.  Her mother has not allowed her to learn sign language for fear others will think she is not normal.  For seven years she has struggled to read lips.  Lip reading is difficult to impossible depending on how easy it is to follow a person’s speech.  Joey easily communicates with her mom, so long as she is looking at her when she speaks.  With the rest of the world, Joey is isolated.  She has very few friends.  In order to hear her teachers she has to wear a special head set.  The students call her “insect head,” causing Joey to try her best to make due without it.  She can speak, but she is only able to hear extremely loud sounds like chain saws.

Everything changes one day when she meets a neighbor who has a pet Chimanzee named Sukari.   Sukari’s owner, Charlie, has taught her American Sign Language. Since he grew up with deaf parents he knew how much easier it was to communicate with sign language rather than lipreading.  Charlie is appalled when he learns that Joey’s mother will not allow her to learn sign language.  He secretly helps her learn signs and gives her a book.  For the first time in a long time she is enjoying life.  She asks Charlie to speak to her mom about the importance of sign language.  Her mother is stubborn and difficult.  She will not support Joey until Joey’s stepfather starts to insist that this is best for Joey.  In the meantime, Joey spends most afternoons with Charlie and Sukari practicing sign.

When Charlie dies he leaves Joey a trust fund so she can go to a deaf school and then to college.  He also leaves a trust for Sukari so that she is well taken care of.  The problem is Sukari is a baby.  To care for her is like trying to care for ten toddlers.  No one is able to provide the care she needs.  To Joey’s dismay, Sukari is sent to a zoo.  While Joey is away at school, she finds out the because Sukari couldn’t get along with the other chimps she has been sent to a lab.  It breaks her heart to hear this (and mine) so Joey does everything in her power to get Sukari back.

I was touched by the relationship Joey had with Sukari.  I have deaf relatives and it was important for me to gain insight into what a deaf person’s private life is like.  They did not get the chance to attend deaf school and this got me wondering whether their lives would have turned out differently if they had been given that opportunity.  I also grew up in an abusive home and just as Joey is confronted with memories of that abuse throughout her life my own nightmares still haunt me.  I felt like I could relate to Joey.  I think readers will as well.