Although twelve-year-old Jake Graham was born deaf and wears a hearing aid, he is just an ordinary boy living in a small New Hampshire town during the mid-1980s. Life hasn’t been the same for Jake since his beloved grandfather passed away. After a rough school year and harassment by bullies, he wishes he could spend his entire summer with his grandfather again. Instead, his parents are sending him to a boys’ camp in Maine.
Jake arrives at Camp Pawtuckaway feeling nervous and uncertain about being outside his comfort zone, but he overcomes his anxiety after he meets Paddy, a twelve-year-old from Ireland. The bond between the two grows as Paddy helps Jake adjust to life in the outdoors, and Jake unknowingly helps Paddy overcome the burden of his own personal tragedy. They wonder if fate brought them together to be brothers.
The boys’ summer takes an unexpected turn when a freak accident sends Paddy to the hospital, and then Jake accidentally gets left behind on a field trip in a remote area of Maine. The rugged wilderness tests Jake’s endurance, as he struggles to find his way back to the camp alone and cannot hear after his hearing aid stops working. Along the way, he mysteriously connects with his grandfather and learns to be at peace with his past.
Assessment:
Plot: Jake Graham, a twelve-year-old deaf student at Winthrop Junior High School in New Hampshire, is grieving his beloved Grampie. After a school year full of bullying, Jake’s parents send him to Camp Pawtuckaway where he is befriended by Paddy, a youngster who has suffered his own tragic loss. When an accident occurs and Jake gets lost in the Maine woods with a nonfunctioning hearing aid, he tries to put his sparse outdoor skills to use and discovers that Grampie’s memory lives on in unexpected ways.
Prose/Style: The prose is easily to read and flows well, though the dialogue between Jake and Paddy is more tuned to explaining to others how they are interacting that to reflecting how kids might speak to each other.
Originality: This YA novel is a deep dive into the emotions of a twelve-year-old, more focused on describing Jake’s feelings as his life goes on without his grandfather than it is on action. The rather slow pace of the book makes it possible for young readers to absorb and understand Jake’s situation and perhaps to find parallels with their own.
Character Development/Execution: In this coming-of-age-story, Jake, unable to hear, discovers the depths of his own strength and abilities as he survives seven days alone, or alone with a wolf companion, in the wilderness where he has only his newly-acquired outdoor skills, his courage, and a couple of guardian animals to rely on.
Date Submitted: August 29, 2021
