I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott

Abstract

Reviewed by: I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott Deborah Stevenson, Editor Scott, Jordan I Talk Like a River; illus. by Sydney Smith. Porter/Holiday House, 2020 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780823445592 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 5-8 yrs Our narrator has a stutter, and on one morning at school it's clear that today is a "bad speech day." His father picks him up and they go for a quiet walk along the river, his favorite place, and his father points out an important similarity: "See how that water moves? That's how you speak." That offers the protagonist a supportive framing ("When the words around me are hard to say, I think of the proud river, bubbling, churning, whirling, and crashing") that gives him the confidence to speak to his class the next day. While the text is stronger on images than action, it's a sensitive portrayal of the isolation and stigma felt by a kid with speech difficulties. Smith (illustrator of Small in the City, BCCB 9/19) sets the mood deftly with smoky, textured watercolor and gouache art that moves from choppy panels as our narrator tries to negotiate the verbal world to fluid, dappled full-page and double-page images when the river's majesty takes over. Despite how widespread speech disorders are, they don't get featured much in literature for youth, and this approach will give insight to kids on the listening end and encouragement to those struggling to speak. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois