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Summary
Summary
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, shemust 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.
Author Notes
Delia Ray's novel GHOST GIRL: A BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN STORY has been nominated on state lists in Oklahoma, Kansas, South Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, and New Hampshire. Ms. Ray is also the author of three young-adult nonfiction books about American history. Her novel SINGING HANDS is based on her mother's experiences growing up as a hearing child with deaf parents. Ms. Ray lives with her family in Iowa City, Iowa.
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Set in Alabama in 1948, Ray's story describes the turbulent summer of Gussie Davis, one of three hearing daughters of deaf parents. At age twelve Gussie suddenly embarks on a course of dreadful behavior, from humming aloud during her minister father's signed services at St. Jude's Church for the Deaf, to stealing treasured love letters from a beautiful young war-widow boarder, Miss Grace, to skipping Sunday school and spending her offering money at a hotel soda fountain. ""Mean-spirited and full of ignominy"" is how she thinks of herself when she's caught and brought to judgment. As punishment, she must help her deaf father in his ministry, an experience that introduces her to the prejudice operating in the worlds of both the deaf and the ""Ears""; but she also makes new friends, sparks a romance for Miss Grace, and finds her own impressive leadership abilities. Ray writes out of her family's memories of a deaf grandfather who was a pioneer and leader in the southern deaf community, and her portrayal of a signing household is natural and convincing. Sign language isn't an exotic novelty here; it's just the method of communication. The focus is on Gussie's ornery rebellion and growth toward self-knowledge, the real heart of the story. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
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 2006 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
It is 1948 in Birmingham, Ala., and lively Gussie, age 12, explains that her comeuppance for humming during her deaf-minister father's church services is the start of what turns out to be one of the worst and best times of her life. Her kind parents interpret this funny first misdemeanor to be a sign that she needs more from the hearing world. Not so, but as she maneuvers in the new, unfamiliar semi-snotty church, her confidence diminishes and she can't stop acting like a clod. Tension builds as her risks at the new church and her high jinks at home come closer to discovery, until her punishment becomes a summer job at the school for the deaf. Ray's powerful control here creates realistically sympathetic characters, whose anxieties and disappointments are palpable. Once in the deaf school, their world, the teaching philosophy of the time includes segregation of black students. Here, Gussie uses all of her talents, her kindness, humor and playfulness; she learns about others and thinks of them first. Two provisos to Ray's superb work: Deaf-culture advocates may object to a finale of deaf students signing songs for the amusement of hearing people, and some readers will be annoyed that every loose end is tied up in the happiest of ways. Inspired by Ray's mother's own experience. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.