around her– the feel of the carpet, the sounds of the rain– are peaceful and poetic. Jaxon, who has much difficulty communicating with others, including her own mother, is still able to paint for us beautiful images of the world as she sees it.
When Jaxon is magically transported through a painting and back in time, she finds that she is able to speak. In fact she seems to have no trouble communicating whatsoever and to be unusually good at intuiting the feelings of others. In Tennessee in 1918 Jaxon’s autism is not a problem, but she soon discovers that racism, an issue that she had been unaware of before her time-travel adventure, is a huge one.
There Are No Words is a quick read with thoroughly likable characters. The relationships between the characters are sweet while still being very real. Readers will be inspired by the patience of Jaxon’s grandparents and the kindness of her friends.
Quill says: A dream-like adventure that reads like poetry while challenging stereotypes
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Griffin, Paul. The Orange Houses. Penguin/Dian Books. 2009.
From Booklist:
*Starred Review* Much like Rita Williams-Garcia’s Jumped (2009), this story follows three kids through the pressure cooker of inner-city teenage life as it moves toward its crushing conclusion. Whereas that book mined the minor humiliations and overblown dramas that swirl during a single school day, this has a much more diffuse scope. The three characters couldn’t be any more different: Tamika Sykes is a partially deaf student agonizing over whether she really wants to