By Jordan Scott
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, 2020. Picture Book
This book gave me chills when I read it. The story is about a boy who has a hard time talking like everyone else. Words don’t come easily and there are often stutters, stuck words, or murmurs. When the unnamed boy is asked to tell the school class about his favorite place he can’t. His dad picks him up from school and takes him to the river so he can calm down and collect his thoughts. There the dad tells him that the boy talks like a river. Rivers aren’t always calm—sometimes they churn and bubble and crash. As the book states, “Even the river stutters.”
I love this book. I love how readers can learn what it is like for someone who has a hard time talking. I love how the idea of “talking like a river” makes totally sense because rivers have all sorts of personalities and times when things are smooth and when they aren’t. I love how the dad was able to understand his son and what he needed. I loved how the boy went back to class and was able to tell about his favorite place and “talk like a river.” This is a powerful story. One that needs to be read to all the schoolchildren who know others that stumble over words the way rivers stumble over rapids. Brilliant. Just brilliant.
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