Leading Ladies

January 1, 2008
Gr 4-6-Megan Merrill, the engaging star of "Deaf Child Crossing" (2002) and "Nobody's Perfect" (2006, both S & S), has her heart set on playing the part of Dorothy in her class production of "The Wizard of Oz". Megan's speech-reading skills help her to thrive in her hearing class, but when her friend Lizzie, who is deaf, transfers to her school, she is at once thrilled to have someone else to sign with and annoyed that Lizzie seems to want the same role in the play. Megan wins the role by bringing her dog, Solo, to the audition and showing off the tricks she has taught him using sign language. As in the first two books, everything hinges on the force of Megan's personality, which strains to hold up the thin plot. The main conflicts are resolved in a facile manneras it turns out, Lizzie really didn't want to be Dorothy after all, and Solo, who escapes from Megan's yard, turns up just in time to bound onto the stage on opening night. Though the descriptions of Megan's school days will be of interest to readers unfamiliar with deafness, the behavior of her classroom interpreter, which repeatedly falls outside the boundaries of acceptable ethical behavior, is unfortunately presented as fun and friendly. Most jarring, however, is the fact that the story digresses several times into Megan's parents' points of view and consistently refers to them by their first names."Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.