Jamee Riggio Heelan

I loved this true story with photos of Chris growing up and making friends. He was born deaf, and could only hear vibrations with the help of a hearing aid. He learned to sign, read lips. His hearing impairment did not keep him from playing soccer and making friends. My favorite page in the book is where he is asking his best friend "Can you hear a rainbow?" and his friend said "No, some things don't need a noise. A rainbow is just the same for you and me." This book is a beautiful show more demonstration that we may have difference, but we are not all that different. show less

This book is about a little girl who is born is with one hand. it is told in first person by Allison, the girl receiving the helping hand,This was a very interesting book because it made me eliminate the feeling of pity i had when picking out this book. This is because Allison is telling her story with optimism and talk about the process of getting her hand. She describes the processes the doctors took when making her an arm. She never once said that she felt bad because she felt different show more with the hand. Instead, she emphasized how happy she was when she received the hand. She also says that she was scared and reluctant to try the hand but when she kept playing with it she liked it. I feel like students would benefit from this book because they will see that it is normal to have a disability. It also teaches the readers that they shouldn't treat people with disabilities differently than others because having a fake hand is as normal as having a real arm. show less

This is a very cute story about a girl named Madison and how she grew up with only one arm. We learn that Madison was born with one arm, but with the help of some doctors she gets a helper hand. This helper hand will be attached to her, that way she can use it just like any other hand. This book is interesting because Madison tells us exactly how the doctors made her new helper hand. I think children reading this book would be intrigued by the visuals of the making of the hand. I also show more enjoyed how we got to see real life images of Madison as a baby experiencing her new helper hand. We learn how Madison had to get use to her new hand, and how it took her some time to not be scared of using it. We also learn that Madison’s helper hand helps her do a lot of things she wasn’t able to do before like pick up her toys and wiggle her fingers. When Madison gets older she will need a bigger helper hand, so we also learn that as her body gets bigger, the helper hand needs to be changed to fit her body. I think this is a great book to read to kids because it discusses a type of physical deformity that I feel isn’t really addressed much with children, and this book talks about it in a way children would be able to understand. show less

This text explores the world or a real child who is deaf and answers questions that children may have about deafness. When Chris was a infant, his parents discover that he does not notice the barking of a dog or a door slamming. Through a progression of exams, doctors determined that he was deaf. In this intriguing, reassuring book, Chris tells young readers about what it is like to be deaf and describes typical events in his life and the ways he has adjusted to his hearing loss. With sign show more language, speech therapy, and an interpreter, Chris's days are much like those of hearing children, filled with classes, soccer games, and children's theater. Illustrations support that text which was created by Simmonds', which are brilliant and full of life multimedia paintings. I personally love this book. It's so simple and honest! show less