Author: Beth Vrabel
Publisher and Year: Sky Pony Press, 2015
Number of pages: 246
Genre: Realistic Fiction
This story is about a young girl named Alice, who has albinism and is legally blind. Her family moves to Sinkville, South Carolina (known to residents as “Stinkville” due to its local smelly paper mill), where she deals with bullying, her mom’s depression, and the difficulties of living in a small town with a disability. But Alice perseveres through it all, learning that even though her eyes may not work well, she can still see the stories that intertwine in her new town, and makes new friends.
In this narrative, there are multiple instances of people being ableist towards Alice because of their perceptions of her disability. The librarian assumes that because she is blind, she must also be deaf, and speaks to her slowly and loudly, assuming her dog is the one following her guidance, not the girl herself. However Alice also acts in an ableist manner towards other blind people she meets, even though she knows she would be bothered by that same behavior being exhibited toward her. Alice also struggles with her identity as a disabled person, stating on multiple occasions that she isn’t really disabled because she can still see, just not well. She uses this as a reason why she should not be at the specialized school for the blind, because she does not want to be differentiated from her sighted peers any more than she already is. Through Alice’s story, the author brings up discussions of ableism and racism, but without using the terminology, using words children like Alice can understand.
There are no illustrations in this novel.
