Speaking from the aging end of life's stages, I know plenty of senior folks who recognize their own need for hearing aid support but who resist wearing the devices. That can be related to wearing them consistently enough to adjust to the sensations and effects so that their benefits can be fully appreciated. There is also a tendency to not want to be "seen" wearing hearing aids, even though there seems to be no such concern about wearing glasses, which are much more obvious. Seniors who feel this was would do well to take a lesson from Mara, a delightful new character.
MARA HEARS IN STYLE is written by author/teacher Terri Clemens, and illustrated by Lucy Rogers. In this story, Mara sits at the early-onset stage of hearing loss, needing support not for aging deterioration but for other reasons. Readers meet her lively personality as she prepares for school in her bedroom. Her flashy purple aids and hot pink ear molds reveal her favorite colors and stylish personality. She loves them! And yet... on the first day of attending a new school, she second-guesses herself, wondering if they might go unnoticed if she had chosen a plain color to blend in with her skin tones.
BEAMING BOOKS, February, 2024
Front and back endpapers represent swirling sounds using blue swoops, droplets, and musical notes. I found the images and blue color choice perfectly represented the conflicting emotions and reactions Mara experiences. The blue conveys her worry and sadness when the aids generate overwhelming cacophony in echoing hallways/lunchroom, and when a new classmate rudely (and loudly) points out how "different" Mara is. The musicality and flow reflect Mara's balanced and upbeat approach to school, including new friends and teacher in her mainstream class and supportive learning in her speech and sign language classes. Within a few spreads, Mara faces both challenges and encouragement, developing friends whose genuine interests in fingerspelling, sign language, and lip reading open more doors for communication and connection and make her feel at home.
Despite the many ways in which more and more young readers are able to find themselves portrayed and included within the pages of picture books (and beyond), the proportion of differences from the dominant culture and established "norms" still shows considerable underrepresentation. At the lowest level of such appearances, especially in leading roles, are sensory disruptive conditions, among others. Things like white canes, hearing aids, and braces appear as tokens or even become signifiers of "lesser" capacity, becoming minor props in the background of the main story. No such issue exists for Mara.
The great strength of this new picture book is that Mara interacts with the world with some adaptations and extra skills, but shines through it as fully aware and involved in making the most of her new opportunities and owning her own talents and interests. Her desire to fit in, to form friendships, to understand her world, and to be seen as WHOLE are one hundred percent the same as every other child's, as characters, as readers, as neighbors, and classmates.
The illustrator's page (click above) indicates that she is deaf, which likely strengthens how well she is able to tell a visual narrative in these pages. Young audiences who show an interest may also want to read the graphic memoir/novel and other titles by deaf author Cece Bell, EL DEAFO.
This releases at the end of February but is available for preorder now. The publisher provided a review copy with no promise of a post, but I am excited to share this new and appealing picture book with readers here. I hope you'll read it and do the same with your friends and families.
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