First we discussed our picture book, Max and the Tag-Along Moon written and illustrated by Floyd Cooper. We had a great read-aloud by one of our members, and those of us who had not held the actual book in our hands got an excellent 'feel' of the story and the wonderful illustrations. We all agreed that it was a lovely, child-centered story -- honing into what the little boy, Max, saw and felt as he remembered his "Granpa's" words that "...the moon will always shine for you." When dark clouds threatened on the way home, and obliterated the moon for Max, and when he was tucked into bed and still didn't see it, we felt that was a good moment of tension, and were pleased, as Max was, when the moon finally appeared and lit up his darkened room, fondly reminding him of and again connecting him with his Granpa. We learned a bit about Cooper's art tecnique, which was to create a painting, and then 'erase' everything that was unnecessary. We loved how his technique created shading and an ethereal feeling to the illustrations. We all loved the depiction of the strong, special relationship between Max and his Granpa, and felt that pre-school kids especially would relate. We all agreed that it was a wonderful book, with a universal, though very simple and old-fashioned-feeling story. It was definitely a 'two thumps up.'
We all learned a lot from our novel, Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte. We liked that it was told from the point-of-view of a deaf young girl, Mary, who let us know at the beginning that the language might seem different from what we were used to reading. We liked the historical aspects related to the deaf colony that had settled on Chilmark Island, part of Martha's Vineyard, south of Boston. We appreciated the descriptions of life there in 1805 -- which -- although quite insular -- was more than adequate to the island's dwellers, who had and did almost everything they needed, while using their own unique sign language, MVSL, long before the conception of ASL. We felt that some of the didactic-seeming passages that explained the plight of the deaf community were acceptable, since they helped us to understand Mary and the other deaf members of her village and to experience their world. We thought that when Mary was kidnapped and taken to Boston as the object of an experiment, it provided some action and suspense, and it made us keep reading to find out what would happen. We thought her descriptions of the stormy boat excursions to and from Boston were very real and harrowing. We realized very clearly, that deaf people were seen as less than human at that time in history, and were often poorly treated. We also liked the inclusion of many other issues: taking the Wampanoag Indians' land, the townspeople's relations with a previously enslaved Black man, the varying points of view of the citizens, the relationship between Mary and her friends, and her feeling of guilt over the death of her brother, whom she had lured out to a road where he was killed by a speeding horse carriage. We found the Author's Notes at the back especially helpful, giving us more specific information about Martha's Vineyard, Deafness there, the Wampanoag, Deaf Education, and the creation of ASL. We felt that young readers could relate to many aspects of the story, and -- as we did -- could learn a lot, and perhaps become more empathetic to people different from themselves. It was a good and worthwhile read.
