Listen: How Evelyn Glennie,

A Deaf Girl,

Changed Percussion

Genre:

    Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, A Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion (2022) is a picture book of how Evelyn Glennie prevailed over her disability.

Target Age Group:

    The target age group is preschool to 3rd grade.

Summary:

    Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, A Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion by Shannon Stocker is the moving and uplifting story about a young girl's perseverance to not only overcome the onset of deafness at age 10, but have her disability positively function for her and not deter her in any way. Evelyn Glennie was determined to play the snare drum by using her whole body through sound vibrations. The young reader will be filled with wonder and admiration at how Evelyn, with the loving support of her parents, fought and won to play a percussive instrument on her own terms.

Justification:

    I discovered this picture book on the Social Justice Books website. The words deaf and percussion in the title sparked my interest in this book. I just didn't want to read it, I needed to read this incredible story about Evelyn Glennie. Music has always played a big part in the life of my family and my son's passion in his life is his music. This book needed to become part of my personal library.

Evaluation:

    For this review, I will be evaluating the illustrations, tone, and setting. The illustrations of Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, A Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion by Devon Holzwarth bring lightly-detailed, soft, and warm colors to the eyes of the young reader. By implementing colors and shapes to portray the sound of the music being played, its as if one is in the room listening to the music. Cool colors were utilized when rejection and an unwelcoming sense of being was taking place in Evelyn's young life. Golden rich tones of color filled two pages when Evelyn was, at last, accepted into the Royal Academy of Music.

    The tone of this wondrous book gives the reader a sense that this is a courageous and exhilarating story. The difference between hearing and listening was introduced in the first few pages by explaining to the reader to listen. One must take time to listen to feel the sounds in one's life. The fortitude and optimism Evelyn displayed in her life was present throughout the book.

    The setting of the story, whether it was from Evelyn's life on the farm to the music rooms in school, she adapted and made a place for herself wherever she was at the moment. Nothing deterred her from becoming a student at the music academy especially when she was auditioning in front of a panel of strangers. She made each place her own concert hall. Evelyn was constantly moving forward in her life with her music and suffice it to say, "they didn't just hear her, they listened."

Citation:

Stocker, S. (2022). Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, A Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion (D. Holzwarth, Illus.). Dial Books for Young Readers.