Islay (review)

REVIEWS A Season of Change, Lois L. Hodges, 100 pp., $2.95 paperback , Gallaudet University Press, 800 Florida Avenue NE, Washington, D. C. 20002, 1987. Biney Richmond, age thirteen, learns to adjust to a severe hearing loss which has become progressively worse since she was a small child. She relies on her emerging talents as a graphic artist and the support of her family and friends to achieve this adjustment, although those around her often seem more of a hindrance than a help to her as she tries to assert her independence. Hodges presents realistic information about the difficulties of using a hearing aid and the frustrations with having to depend on speechreading. In spite of these difficulties, her heroine finds the inner resources to learn to accept her situation and use it to help others. Hodges' plot line is resolved satisfactorily. Her protagonist achieves personal growth. I recommend this book to school librarians and teachers for their pre-teen and teenage readers. Jean F. Andrews, Ph.D. Associate Professor Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky The Family with a Handicapped Child, Milton Seligman, Ph.D., editor, 317 pp., $24.50 paperback, Grune & Stratton, Inc., Orlando, FL 32887, 1983. This book is designed to explain to professionals the dynamics of family life with a disabled child. It collects a rich assortment of philosophic backgrounds, legal mandates and sensitive discussions of relationships between parents and the professionals who work with their disabled child. The first section, "Foundations," is a fascinating exploration of the social and legal history that lead to the active role today's parents take in the treatment and education of their disabled children. Later sections focus on "Parents, The Community and Service Providers, "Family Dynamics" and "Interventions ." Chapters on fathers and siblings are welcome additions to the professional literature. Some excellent strategies for parents are included in the chapter called "Lost, Then Found: Parents' Journey Through the Community Service Maze." The Family with a Handicapped Child is a comprehensive reference. Each chapter ends with an extensive bibliography. Unfortunately, however, there is a serious flaw in the section addressing "Parenting Hearing-Impaired Children." The authors state: "Many (emphasis provided) of the parents of deaf children have experienced deafness in their family or are deaf themselves. They are aware before having a child of the possibilities that the child may be deaf." Actually, few parents of deaf children have any experience with deafness before their child is diagnosed. The statistics I know point to less than 10 percent of parents with prior experience with deafness. This careless use of the word many is a significant error, and could cause grave misunderstanding on the part of professionals new to deafness. Bonnie Fairchild American Society for Deaf Children Wilmington, Delaware Islay, Douglas Bullard, 337 pages, price unavailable, paperback , T. J. Publishers, Inc., 817 Silver Spring Avenue, Silver Spring, Md. 20910, 1986. This is a remarkable novel. It is the first to treat at length a subject that has always been a secret fantasy of the deaf—the republic of the deaf, in which they can be first-class cititzens. The principal character is Lyson C. Sulla, a deaf man who plots to take over the imaginary idyllic state of Islay located somewhere en route from Washington, D.C, to New York. In pursuit of his goals, he meets such delightfully daffy characters as the Most Dear Reverend Calvin Dowie, a minister of the Deaf in Christ Church, who extols "Paradise galore up there." Then there is Dr. Hansel Fletcher who, because of his deafness, is assigned to the autopsy room in his hospital, where he dreams of healing live people instead of "pulling out guts." One of these characters should be of special interest to the readership of this periodical. He is Dr. Hermann Masserbatt, the superintendent of the Islay State School for Communicative Disorders, a.k.a. the Hand Slapper. In him Bullard lampoons traits that the deaf find objectionable about what we in the trade know by the cognomen of "deafness -related professionals." Masserbatt is too busy attending meetings, conferences and conventions "to keep up with all those advances in the service to the deaf," such as research into "the possibility...