Compass

Jennifer
Gibson
ISBN Number: 
978-1937329891
Genre: 
Young Adult

INSPIRATIONAL:   Jessie has a vibrant and active life with basketball, karate, school and of course her boyfriend Ethan. Then why does she feel so alone and left out all the time? Her hearing impairment does make it more difficult for her than for other teens. She is picked on at school but she has learned to adapt pretty well.  When one of the karate instructors is unusually rough with her and leaves her hurt and bruised, she tells Ethan yet he sides with the instructor, who he has known for a long time. She is so hurt and devastated that she breaks up with him. Ethan comes around after a while and invites her to be a counselor at a camp for special needs children. She accepts and is amazed how a whole new world can open up for her.

Gibson has a knack for helping the reader really feel how it must be to be hearing impaired. The sounds that are taken for granted in every day life are not only explained painted and expanded upon. The book does go into more detail than is necessary quite often when explaining how the deaf feel. This slows the story down. Still, the author is uniquely adept at creating a sympathetic character that has depth to her personality, then showing that character’s growth and tenacity to live life to the fullest.

 

Rose Mary Espinoza