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The Silence Between Us

by Book Blog


Posted on September 20, 2019


 

          We just got a shipment of new books in the library, and The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais was the first on that caught my eye.  It’s told Silence between us book covercompletely from the point-of-view of Maya, a high school senior who lost her hearing at the age of 13 due to meningitis.  She, her younger brother who has cystic fibrosis, and her mom have to move to Colorado for her mom’s job.  Maya had been going to a school for the deaf, and communicates mostly in American Sign Language (ASL), so this book is full of her figuring out what she’s going to do in the future, dealing with her brother’s illness, and figuring out a way to communicate with everyone around her.  On top of all of that, she also has to figure out if she wants to encourage the attention of Beau, a cute honors student who has issues of his own. 

Will she get into the college she wants?  Will she make friends?  Will her brother be okay?  Will she start dating Beau?  I guess you’ll need to check this book out and see.

This book was well-written and though-provoking.  It really makes you think about the challenges facing millions of people everyday.  When Maya is using ASL, the text is in all caps, and written in the syntax of ASL, which, as a former foreign language teacher, I found really fascinating.


Tags: cute, real-world issues, high-school, disabilities, illness, college worries, cute

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