This was one of those books that I wanted to finish in one sitting. I had to get up for work in the morning though so I took 2 days. The characters grabbed me immediately. The story was about a young teen girl, Joey, who lost her hearing due to an injury at 7 years old. She is very isolated and lonely in her silent world. Her mother due to her own guilt over the injury, keeps Joey isolated by forbidding sign language. This is the one part of the story I found the least feasible. Although I shouldn't be surprised by the level of selfishness in our human hearts , I still found it hard to find a mother would be so consistently small minded. Joey and her mother do start to strain their relationship as she starts to exert her own personality and dreams.
Into this mix of unhappiness drops Sukari, a darling baby chimpanzee Joey meets on a walk through the woods. An elderly neighbor owns and cares for the chimp. Both the chimp and owner, Charlie, know sign language and are very taken with Joey.
The story pulls the reader into the world of the deaf and their struggles, at the same time it addresses the issue of animal cruelty. Admittedly this is a big bite for a middle grade book to take on, but I thought the author did a nice job. I learned, I cried, I empathisized and I wanted to do more. I quickly had a waiting list of readers among my 5th grade girls in class.