Lost in the River of Grass

Lost in the River of Grass is one of the most exciting books I've ever read.

It begins like the typical novel for girls with the main character having problems being accepted in a new school, but even that part is unusual since it opens on a field trip in the Everglades. And soon, when the main character, Sarah, and a boy she barely knows get marooned and lost it turns into an adventure novel that would appeal to boys as well as girls. Of course the development of the relationship between the main characters is probably more of a girl thing.

But very page of the book is exciting.

It includes an amazing amount of information about the Everglades and creatures that live there, but all the information is essential to the adventure and doesn't feel like it's intended to be educational. This is definitely a page-turner because the survival of the kids is threatened in so many ways by the creatures and situation they're in as they try to find their way out of the river of grass.

I reviewed another one of Ginny Rorby's books, Hurt Go Happy, here http://onwordsblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hurt-go-happy.html a while ago. I had read that one because it's about deafness and an animal who learned Sign Language and I have experience with both those topics. I decided to read Lost in the River of Grass since it was by the same author and I'm glad I did. Although there's a brief mention of some of the characters from the previous book, this one is entirely different. I recommend it highly.

Hurt Go Happy

You might think Hurt Go Happy is an odd title for a book, but if you're familiar with American Sign Language it might not seem so strange.

I saw this book, by Ginny Rorby, in a catalog. It's about a Deaf girl who meets an old man raising a baby chimpanzee and teaching it Sign Language. Since I've had lots of experience with Deaf people and once met Koko, the famous gorilla who learned how to sign, I couldn't resist buying the book.

The girl in the story has been forbidden to learn Sign Language by her mother, but starts learning it from the old man and becomes friends with Sukari, the Chimpanzee. But when the old man dies, Sukari is shipped off to a horrible research facility where she and many other animals are treated cruelly.

Is there any way a young girl who can't hear can find a way to save the animal she loves?

Some of the realistic descriptions of the research facility are disturbing but I recommend this book anyway because it's exciting, well written, and should motivate lots of readers to care about animals and understand that people who can't hear are not very different from themselves.