Book Reviews: Listen

Listen is a charming, sensitive and beautifully crafted book. When we choose a book for our children, it is usually its size and colour that initially catches the eye. When I first held Listen, I immediately felt the textured swirls on the cover, with interesting shiny shapes surrounding its title. It looks fun and interesting, and is the perfect size for children to hold, immediately sparking my curiosity.

Listen is a true story of Dame Evelyn Glennie, a brilliant percussionist who becomes deaf in in her primary years. The author Shannon Stocker paints a warm picture of Glennie's early childhood in rural Scotland surrounded by animals with loving musical parents. Stocker outlines Glennie's musical journey, describing the young girl's joyful experiences with piano and clarinet playing, and generally being embraced by music in all its guises.

The all-important realisation that something is wrong comes with: ‘but soon, her ears began to hurt.’ The reader then meets a blunt audiologist who outlines Glennie's condition in frank terms. As the story evolves, it is through the shared kindness and determination of key people in her life, alongside her unswerving, deep conviction and grit, she succeeds.

Subtle references are given to failures in the UK's educational system to acknowledge individual children, followed by later efforts to improve support and selection. We hear about brilliant individuals such as her drum teacher, who recognise and support Glennie's early talent. In this, we are reminded that people like educator Ron Forbes really do exist and we should look out for them.

Listen does not sentimentalise deafness nor the loss of ‘normal’ hearing experiences. The literature and sympathetic pictures have a musically ambient poetic feel with fabulous visual emphasis made on equally delicious words such as ‘WHUM!’, ‘WAH-WAH-WAHHHH’. Go on, try saying them out loud! Follow the colourful swirls on the page with your voice and body, and there, you experience a little bit of Glennie's world.

In my view, the nature of truthful listening is to hear with the whole body in multi-sensory ways. This books gives us this in abundance by combining colour and words, and is akin to music that links fact with fiction. If anything, the book's ultimate message is not about deafness or even overcoming deafness against all odds (and both are depicted beautifully), but about truly listening to understand.

Weaving facts into a story helps early primary ages to further their understanding of communication and how they can better engage. Like Glennie and many others, I also listen with my body, but chose a different route to nurture musicality and communicative skills. To review this book, I switched off my hearing aids so as to experience its ultimate message. If you can block out surrounding sounds, perhaps you, too, will awaken those inner ears.

Stocker and Glennie pen a personal note of a collective resolve to achieve a dream through imagination and determination. As such, Listen gives licence to young readers to reach for their own star.