Whisper

Fifteen year old Demi is starting a new school – always a nerve-racking experience. However, for Demi, it represents a time of far more dramatic change, as her new school is a college for deaf students, a recent case of Meningitis having left her profoundly deaf.

The book follows her transition into a new school but also a new life – and it is far from easy.  The impact of her sudden loss of hearing is still painfully raw. Demi feels isolated, adrift, angry, and completely unsure of her identity. Relationships with her friends, family, the opposite sex and even complete strangers have become strange and difficult. We see her drawn in different directions, as she struggles to establish whether she can still fit in amongst her hearing friends or find a place within the unfamiliar Deaf community. Or is it ever possible for someone to belong to both worlds?

It is rare enough to find a book featuring a deaf protaganist, but few books come close to this one in terms of reflecting the true spectrum of emotions, views and experiences of deafness.  Whisper effortlessly depicts the conflicting perspectives, the impossible decisions about the ‘right’ education and methods of communication, the bullying and discrimination, the politics of deafness, and the fight of the Deaf community against oppression. We gain a respect for the power, beauty and intricacy of sign language. We see how flawed society remains, despite often having very good intentions. Above all, we see the need for a far better understanding of deaf issues.

This is a book which succeeds in offering a valuable learning point on every turn of the page, without being even remotely worthy.  It is eminently readable and the challenges which are specific to deafness are seamlessly intertwined with the more typical teenage - or indeed human – fears, issues and preoccupations. 

Author  Joyce Dunbar, herself deaf, comments: 'The balance of negative/positive is honest and poised, never tipping over into sentimentality. Deaf readers will feel recognised and it gives a really sympathetic insight for the hearing into what it feels like to be deaf.'