I was drawn to this book due to the fact it features a disabled heroine: a young girl with hysterical (selective) muteness. Due to a car crash in which she lost her parents and sister, PTSD has rendered her speechless.
Wanting to keep people at bay, she uses a robotic voice, drawing lots of backlash and Stephen Hawkings jokes--even from teachers. She's an outcast, a misfit. I understood and sympathized with her.
And she has an incredibly LOL sarcastic humor and wit. I loved it and was all set to give this book a five 'til the hero really entered the picture.
At first I was perturbed by the "I can read your mind" thing. It was just too convenient. Personally, I would have preferred he love her, ROBOT VOICE AND ALL, than be able to talk to her without it. How do we know he really cares for her? After all, she can just telepath her thoughts. Would he love her so much if she was using her hawkie talkie every ten minutes?
Then, he did the inexcusable in my eyes. He told her he wouldn't be with her until she talks again. I don't care if it's selective muteness, she has a disability, and you must accept her for how she is. That would be like my husband telling me "I don't want to be with you until you can hear." I'm deaf. Hello? How rude.
I enjoyed the coming of age tale, the heroine's wit, the mystery of her the car crash, but I did not enjoy or like the boyfriend. Yea, yea, he claims he didn't want to hinder her healing, but I never bought it.
So I both liked and didn't like this. I think a YA book should tell teenagers it's okay to be different. It's okay to be mute, deaf, crippled, whatever. Don't try to change yourself for anyone else. But this book to me sent the other and the wrong message: change so you can have a boyfriend!
I still enjoyed it overall, though. Three bikes. I received this via Amazon Vine.
This is a story about acceptance. It's about accepting others the way they are, shortcomings and all and about accepting YOURSELF, shortcomings and all.
Cindy's "shortcoming" is one leg being two inches shorter than the other. She's got a limp. The kids at school call her names, won't sit with her at lunch, laugh when other tease her, or just plain avoid her alltogether (which is no better).
Having grown up with a disability myself, I felt as though I was reading my own story, except it's a leg issue, not a hearing issue. I think the author pulled this off nicely and I feel it's a story that should be read by the masses, especially the young ones that this novel is aimed at. This moral cannot be repeated enough: "Our shortcomings don't define who we are, unless we let them." And as Cindy's friend says in the book, "You're never going to find someone who likes you until you like yourself."
And I'm getting off track here... Cindy is 17 and never been kissed. When the star of the football team asks her for tutoring, Cindy thinks, "Oh he just needs to pass math class and stay on the football team.." When he asks her to the school dance, Cindy thinks, "Oh he is playing a joke on me!"
Is bitterness ruining things for Cindy? Is she seeing ulterior motives where there are none? Except for that nasty chick, Sally, does anyone really have a problem with Cindy's handicap? Or is it just Cindy with the problem? Perhaps she is making it into more of a problem than it is.. Again, there's a strong lesson here.
There's more going on in this story, however. There's a bad accident, there's young love, there's jealousy, there's coveting thy neighbor's furniture, and there's first job excitement. There were a few minor irritations. Momma irritated me. As an independant working woman, I found myself frowning at mama.. She is always in the kitchen making dinner, preparing to make dinner, or doing dishes. (Woman, this is 2011! You have rights! Tell the man to eat a Hot Pocket!)
And the brother, that's a future sexist pig right there and I would have loved to see someone set him straight...
"Why does Cindy get to do everything?" he whined.
"What do I get to do that you don't?" Cindy asked, with hands on her hips. "I'm home a lot more than you are. While you're out playing with your friends, I'm here helping Momma."
"Well, you're a girl, and you're supposed to."
Say what???? Is that right?? I would go up one side of that kid and down the other. LOL
Nevertheless, this book is aimed at the younger crowd, eleven and up and judging it for the crowd it is intended for, I rate it a five. I highly recommend kids everywhere read it. If they are being mistreated in school, this will give them hope and teach them to not be ashamed of themselves. If they are doing the mistreating in school, well, obviously they need to read it even more.
I bought this on Amazon Kindle.
I was drawn to this book due to the fact it features a disabled heroine: a young girl with hysterical (selective) muteness. Due to a car crash in which she lost her parents and sister, PTSD has rendered her speechless.
