Book review "Deaf Child Crossing"

Deaf Child Crossing

Marlee Matlin’s debut novel Deaf Child Crossing is a decent first attempt at writing a fictional piece, in which certain events were loosely based on her own childhood. Although an insider (Matlin lost her hearing at eighteen months of age) it is apparent that Matlin sometimes struggles with not only English grammar but also at times with expressing the frustration that the main character, Megan, feels at being deaf and living in a hearing world. Megan uses her hearing aids, lip reading and some sign language to communicate but Matlin does not capture the true frustration that many deaf people feel in social situations when there is a communication barrier present. Most of the time Megan just comes off as being angry at the whole world and at times an egocentric nine year old with a short temper. Matlin does paint a clear picture of new friendship with the ups and downs of making new friends and the testing the boundaries of those friendships. For example, when Megan and her new best friend Cindy decide to go to summer camp together, everything is fine until another deaf girl Lizzie shows up. Lizzie only uses American Sign Language (ASL) and does not voice, so Megan and Lizzie sign all the time and leave Cindy feeling left out. This is a frequent feeling for Megan herself; deaf people are quite often left out of conversations and sometimes what is going on in the hearing world around them; so this is something that Megan should be aware of and from there trouble ensues at summer camp. Matlin however does not make that connection very obvious in the novel. A frustration that I had (being an interpreter that took years learning ASL) with the book was that Cindy started to learn sign language and picked it up rather quickly. After only a week or two she is interpreting for Megan at a shopping mall. Over all Deaf Child Crossing is a good idea and starts out strong but it is not pulled together through the middle and the end and most of the characters are not given enough depth.