In a fit of utter random impulse I got a bunch of kid’s books out of the library that feature a deaf character strongly enough that ‘deaf’ as a search term called them up in the catalog. I get bored at work easily and it results in getting books for myself. Really bad, as I had class that night, so I was lugging around far more books than I needed to be. Really bad, in that I already had over 40 books checked out. Really bad, in that one of those books aged to ‘lost’ and I actually can’t find the thing.
So we’ll see if I follow through on the impulse. An idea formed at some point that day that I’d read all these books and write up little blurbs, compare and contrast, that sort of thing. I’ve decided to use this blog as the repository for the info. It’ll be interesting to see if I spot any trends, and especially interesting if I spot oversights.
Why kid’s books? Because other than ‘deaf character is suspect in a murder mystery’, I’ve pretty much read most of the adult books at the library that turn up in a ‘deaf’ keyword search. And they’re faster to read.
So without any further ado (and why is it so tempting to write that adieu?), here’s my blurby info review thingee for Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything. (Author: Lenore Look, Illustrator: Anne Wilsdorf)
This is the second book in the series, but it didn’t seem to matter particularly. The library marks this as a third grade reading level book, which seems about right. Ruby Lu is a Chinese-American girl with a little brother. As the book starts, she’s already learning about ‘Immigration’ in a very personal way. Her aunt, uncle, and cousin have come from China and are staying with them.
Flying Duck is the cousin in question and is the deaf character in the book. Flying Duck reads lips — though mostly in Cantonese, as she hasn’t learned much English yet. Flying Duck uses Chinese Sign Language. Ruby Lu’s baby brother starts picking up the sign language faster than her, which annoys the heck out of her, because her cousin can communicate with her baby brother while she can’t.
Most of the book is about Ruby Lu at school, and over the summer, where she goes to the pool, and to summer school. And about a rocky friendship with neighbor Emma. And all the things a girl goes through as a second grader. Flying Duck plays a role as a cohort and while not the main character, is featured quite often.
We learn that Flying Duck could hear until she was 4, when she fell off a roof and ‘burst her skull’. We get to learn how she signed that in Chinese Sign Language too. I think that still makes her lipreading skill a little unbelievable, but not much is made of it. Most of the book, you’re not quite sure how they’re communicating. English? Cantonese? Sign? Or just by being on the same page, where not much communication is actually necessary to do what they’re doing. Playing, for example.
In one chapter, Ruby Lu tells her classmates what they need to know about interacting with a deaf person. She pulls out a couple famous quotes here, though they’re not cited. “The only thing a deaf person can’t do is hear.” and “Never say, ‘Forget it, it’s not important.’”
Though I did wonder how “Get her attention first by calling her name or waving” was going to help. Is she actually hard of hearing rather than profoundly deaf? No hearing aid is ever mentioned.
When they’re in summer school, they both start taking an American Sign Language class. So the glossary at the end, in addition to defining the more difficult English words, also has some Chinese signs, and then one ASL sign.
And what I didn’t notice until page 45! Somehow! Was there’s a little drawing of Flying Duck in the bottom corner of each page. It’s a flipbook. And it’s a good drawing, because I picked out ‘friend’ when I flipped it, without having a clue what sign was going to be in there. It seems to just be ‘friend’ over and over again. A whole sentence would’ve been nice. Oh well.
An interesting book. A cool book. And a funny book. Without having read the other book(s), I’d highly recommend these to any ~3rd graders out there. Ruby Lu is an awesome kid.
Deaf Character: 2nd grader Chinese girl, deafened at age 4. Knows sign.
Relationship to Main Character: Cousin
Genre of Book: Mainstream
Age-level of Book: 3rd grade