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A review by melbsreads
Talk Under Water by Kathryn Lomer
4.0
Also reviewed on my Youtube channel.
This book was seriously cute while also being surprisingly educational. It's a split narrative YA contemporary that tells the story of Will and Summer, who meet on the Facebook page for Jessica Watson who, as a teenager, completed a solo circumnavigation of the world. Summer lives in Kettering, a small town in Tasmania. Will's from Kettering, but living in Eden on the south coast of New South Wales with his father. It's Summer's mention of Kettering that makes him reach out to her, and the two start emailing and become friends.
Not long after, Will's dad gets a job in Hobart and they move back to Kettering, allowing Will and Summer to meet for the first time. And it becomes apparent that Summer has left a few things out of her emails to Will, namely the fact that she's deaf.
I loved how authentically teenaged this felt. Will and Summer have several arguments in the course of the book, and their reactions are totally how the teenagers I work with would react. I love that Will's reaction to finding out that Summer is deaf is to look up Youtube videos about AusLAN and to enrol in a short course so that he can communicate with her face-to-face. I love that there are misunderstandings and awkward moments and things that are hard to talk about. I love that there was discussion of the sentiment towards Cochlear implants in the deaf community, and basically, this book was pretty damned fabulous.
A quick and easy read, although there were times when I struggled with the lack of dialogue marks throughout.
This book was seriously cute while also being surprisingly educational. It's a split narrative YA contemporary that tells the story of Will and Summer, who meet on the Facebook page for Jessica Watson who, as a teenager, completed a solo circumnavigation of the world. Summer lives in Kettering, a small town in Tasmania. Will's from Kettering, but living in Eden on the south coast of New South Wales with his father. It's Summer's mention of Kettering that makes him reach out to her, and the two start emailing and become friends.
Not long after, Will's dad gets a job in Hobart and they move back to Kettering, allowing Will and Summer to meet for the first time. And it becomes apparent that Summer has left a few things out of her emails to Will, namely the fact that she's deaf.
I loved how authentically teenaged this felt. Will and Summer have several arguments in the course of the book, and their reactions are totally how the teenagers I work with would react. I love that Will's reaction to finding out that Summer is deaf is to look up Youtube videos about AusLAN and to enrol in a short course so that he can communicate with her face-to-face. I love that there are misunderstandings and awkward moments and things that are hard to talk about. I love that there was discussion of the sentiment towards Cochlear implants in the deaf community, and basically, this book was pretty damned fabulous.
A quick and easy read, although there were times when I struggled with the lack of dialogue marks throughout.