A Blind Guide to Stinkville

July 20, 2015
Despite a visual impairment caused by albinism, 12-year-old Alice has gotten along fine with help from her mother and her best friend. But she feels lost now that her family has moved from Seattle to Sinkville, S.C., nicknamed Stinkville due to its rotten-egg stench. Alice’s family members are too depressed, busy, and preoccupied to act as her guide, and she can’t rely on her beloved shih tzu to show her around town. Alice can go to the library, though, and it is there that she learns about an essay-writing contest. While researching her topic, “Sinkville Success Stories,” Alice is drawn into the community, making new friends (and an enemy) and learning that the town has more to offer than a bad smell. Using a lively first-person narrative, Vrabel (Pack of Dorks) presents a rare glimpse of what it is like to navigate new territory while legally blind. Alice’s road isn’t always an easy one, but her journey will be inspiring to readers, especially those who have struggled with a disability. Ages 8–12. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency.

August 1, 2015
When Alice and her family move to Sinkville, South Carolina, the town's nickname of Stinkville feels particularly apt. In Seattle, everyone accepted 12-year-old Alice's albinism and blindness. Her best friend guided her through school, and her mother told her stories. In Stinkville, she doesn't know anyone, her brother won't guide her, and her mother's depression worsens. As if that weren't enough, her parents want her to attend the Addison School for the Blind. With trepidation and humor, Alice decides to "advocate for [herself]" and enter the Sinkville Success Stories essay contest. Her research leads her, white cane and (decidedly nonservice) dog in tow, to make friends with the townsfolk and peace with her visual impairment and family upheaval. Some subplots feel contrived, and some characters are stock-the kindly waitress who knows everyone's orders, the whittling old man, the bully who hides her own vulnerability-but their effect is cozy. Most commendable is Vrabel's focus on compromise and culture shock. Disorientation encompasses not only place and attitude, but also the rarely explored ambivalence of being disabled on a spectrum. Alice's insistence that she's "not that blind" rings true with both stubbornness and confusion as she avails herself of some tools while not needing others, in contrast to typically unambiguous portrayals. Readers who worry about fitting in-wherever that may be-will relate to Alice's journey toward compromise and independence. (Fiction. 9-12)

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August 1, 2015

Gr 4-7-Born with albinism, Alice has only 20/200 vision with glasses. Before moving to Sinkville, aka Stinkville, her near blindness wasn't a problem. Having grown up in Seattle all her life, she knew everyone and knew her way around. With no baseline knowledge of Stinkville, no friends, and her family too busy coping with their own problems to help her, Alice must find her own way. When a writing contest offers her a chance to prove she can do anything, Alice and her dog, Tooter, set out to find their own place in their new home. Will they succeed? Will they win the contest? Will she make new friends? Alice is a realistic and easy-to-relate-to character. The dynamics that develop between her and the townsfolk easily draws readers into Alice's new world. The author does a great job of mixing humor with more serious topics like depression, disability, and old age. Readers who enjoy realistic fiction and humor will find much to appreciate. VERDICT An engaging middle grade read for most library collections.-Kira Moody, Whitmore Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT

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