Barbara D. Booth (1)

Once again, the artistry of Jim LaMarche is stunningly beautiful and soulful. Mandy is young and deaf. She lives with her grandmother who loves her deeply. This is a charming tale of a young girl who is deaf and her grandmother who loves her deeply.

One day, when walking through the fields, Mandy's grandmother lost her very special brooch given to her by Mandy's grandfather.

Wanting to help find the brooch, Mandy went out during a nasty evening storm. Mandy fell, but in doing so, she found the cherished item.… (more)

Mandy is about a young girl named Amanda, but nicknamed Mandy, and she staying with her grandma. Mandy is also deaf and wishes deeply she could hear. She wishes she could her mother's voice, music, nature, everything. Mandy only communicates by reading lips and sometimes signing. We learn from grandma about the special pin she wears every single day and while they are walking through the forests, grandma realizes it's gone. While searching Mandy has to continuously look up to make sure her grandma is still around but as the sun goes down, so does the chances of them finding the pin. That night, Mandy sneaks out to go find the pin and be the hero but being deaf, it's even more scarier for her because of wild animals and it's starting to lighting. After many scary moments, Mandy finds the pin and her grandma is forever thankful. From this book we learn that it is a struggle to be hearing impaired. This book doesn't show any "positive" things that others show when their is a hearing impaired character. The whole story is about how Mandy wishes she could hear, how scary it could be sometimes, etc. This would be a book I avoid because it was making me feel sorry for Mandy.The book also kind of drags on with information that wasn't really needed but it got the message across that Mandy longs to hear things we, people who can hear, take for granted. Overall, the illustrations were done very well and it was a great book.… (more)

Mandy tells the story of a girl who is deaf and lives with her grandmother. She wishes she could hear the music out of the radio when she dances or helps her grandmother with chores. She communicates with her grandmother by reading her lips or signing. Her grandmother tells her a story about the special pin she wears everyday. They take a walk in the forest and her grandmother loses the pin. They try to look for it, but can't find it. Mandy sneaks out the house at night to go look for the pin. It is dark and she can see dark clouds and lightening, she even encounters raccoons. Many eventually finds the pin and returns home to a thankful grandmother. Mandy hearing disability was addressed throughout the book. She wears a hearing aid to help her hear some noises, but it doesn't really work. Many times Mandy wishes she could hear the sound of her grandmother's voice, music, cookies dropping on the pan, and the leaves cracking under feet. She mentions that her grandmother wasn't startled by her voice when she attempted to talk, which hints that her voice has a different sound to because of her hearing disability. Overall, I thought this book addressed being deaf well because it mentioned many sounds Mandy wanted to hear. However, the beginning dragged on and was full of information that had no meaning to the story, which made the book boring.… (more)