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Reviews
Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion by Shannon Stocker, Devon Holzwarth
carstensena's review
5.0
I read this as a committee member of the 2023 Schneider Family Book Award -- this is the winner for young readers!
gsanta1's review
2.0
Decent. I think I’m just tired of stories that have someone succeeding despite challenges and then telling us “normals” that we can do it too.
calistareads's review
5.0
I found this on a Mock Caldecott list. I'm so glad I did. There was so much I learned from this little book. This is a biography about Evelyn Glennie - a world famous percussionist who has been knighted, won grammies and had over 60 concerto's written for her alone. She was the first person to make a living as a solo percussionist. The big thing about Evelyn is she is deaf.
What??? How does that work? At 10 years old the nerves in her ears began to deteriorate and she was losing her ability to hear. She loved music and desperately wanted to be in Orchestra at school. She found a percussion teacher who need the teacher of the century award. He got her to listen in a new way. He asked her to listen with her body.
She figured out that her entire body can feel vibrations. Her whole body became a tympanic membrane and she figured out how sounds felt. With this, she made her own style. She played barefoot to hear the music. She lead the Olympic athletes in London. I mean, this woman has done so much.
I'm blown away by this story, by this person. Some people have a way of opening the world up to possibilities for people we simply can't imagine. These stories are inspiring. It does help one to realize that so many of the reasons we have for not doing something is the block inside our own head. The people who don't have these blocks can do amazing things.
The artwork was fantastic as well. The artwork brought the music off the page. It did a fantastic job and the color and beauty was amazing. I know I keep harping on this, but I feel this book is also better than the actual book that won the Caldecott. I'm disappointed in the winner. This could easily have been an honor book and should have been.
If you have kids, the should read this. This is about possibility and how if we want something we have to pursue it non-ceasing. This is an Amazing story.
What??? How does that work? At 10 years old the nerves in her ears began to deteriorate and she was losing her ability to hear. She loved music and desperately wanted to be in Orchestra at school. She found a percussion teacher who need the teacher of the century award. He got her to listen in a new way. He asked her to listen with her body.
She figured out that her entire body can feel vibrations. Her whole body became a tympanic membrane and she figured out how sounds felt. With this, she made her own style. She played barefoot to hear the music. She lead the Olympic athletes in London. I mean, this woman has done so much.
I'm blown away by this story, by this person. Some people have a way of opening the world up to possibilities for people we simply can't imagine. These stories are inspiring. It does help one to realize that so many of the reasons we have for not doing something is the block inside our own head. The people who don't have these blocks can do amazing things.
The artwork was fantastic as well. The artwork brought the music off the page. It did a fantastic job and the color and beauty was amazing. I know I keep harping on this, but I feel this book is also better than the actual book that won the Caldecott. I'm disappointed in the winner. This could easily have been an honor book and should have been.
If you have kids, the should read this. This is about possibility and how if we want something we have to pursue it non-ceasing. This is an Amazing story.
msgabbythelibrarian's review
4.0
What a great story about learning how losing hearing ACTUALLY made someone listen better. Made them feel their surrounds more.
It's wordy (like most picture book biographies) but I absolutely love the disability representation <3
It's wordy (like most picture book biographies) but I absolutely love the disability representation <3
avidbookreader7's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
3.5
shighley's review
5.0
Well done joining of text and illustration. Read this after it won a Schneider award. There are many talking points you could use with students.
missprint_'s review against another edition
4.0
I don’t like that the only citations here are websites. I also don’t know what to make of it not mentioning that Glennie does work in the Deaf community anywhere in the author’s note. Like that’s totally skipped. Which feels weird. Almost all of the sources are primary and the author knows Glennie. Is that a plus? Unclear.
mldavisreads's review
informative
inspiring
5.0
Nonfiction Picture Book. This book was awarded the ALA Schneider Family Book Award and is also a nominee for our state student choice award, so I was excited to get the chance to read it. Evelyn Glennie is a Scottish percussion musician who is deaf. She was not born deaf, but gradually lost her hearing between 8 and 12. As a child who loved the piano and clarinet, she was determined to find a way to keep music in her life. She gravitated toward percussion but had to prove herself as many doubted that a deaf student could play music. But luckily one music teacher showed her how to hear the vibrations of the instruments with the rest of the body. Eventually Evelyn became the first full-time solo percussionist in the world and was knighted by the Queen of England.
I had not heard of Evelyn Glennie before but immediately went to listen to her music online. The music is beautiful and reminded me how much I love instrumental music. Evelyn's story is powerful with her message in the author's note telling readers "You cannot wait for things to happen to you. You must make your own opportunities." The illustrations are done primarily in a gray, yellow, red, and brown palette. The words of the music are in a stylized font, making them stand out. Back matter includes an author's note and source list.
I had not heard of Evelyn Glennie before but immediately went to listen to her music online. The music is beautiful and reminded me how much I love instrumental music. Evelyn's story is powerful with her message in the author's note telling readers "You cannot wait for things to happen to you. You must make your own opportunities." The illustrations are done primarily in a gray, yellow, red, and brown palette. The words of the music are in a stylized font, making them stand out. Back matter includes an author's note and source list.