Blindsided

June 15, 2010

Born without an iris, a condition known as sporadic aniridia, 14-year-old Natalie faces the harsh reality that she will become blind. Preparing for the inevitable, Natalie's parents enroll her in a school for blind and disabled students miles away from home, with the intent that she will learn basic living skills. Distraught at leaving lifelong friends and her sophomore year, Natalie fights her new school and sets herself apart from the other students, in part because she believes that she isn't one of them. However, as Natalie's vision continues to fail, she begins to slowly befriend her classmates, learning their stories, sharing their jokes and, most importantly, drawing on their hope. Although told from Natalie's third-person perspective, which spares no detail of her fight to keep her vision, Natalie's classmates also provide distinct and multidimensional voices that powerfully introduce life with vision loss, which will open the eyes of those unfamiliar with this disability. A final short section on Braille offers a basic view of the alphabet's structure. (Fiction. YA)

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2010
Gr 6–10—-atalie, 14, knows that her future is becoming dimmer as the loss of her eyesight is a nightmare she can't avoid. Her vision has been diminishing from a congenital disease since she was eight, but now the prognosis is not "if" but "when" As she states, "You can't prepare for going blind." Part of going from denial to acceptance is attending a boarding school for the blind. Hostile, angry, and uncooperative at first, she slowly begins to concentrate on learning Braille, using her cane, taking self-defense classes, and making new friends. This story probes the overlooked gifts of physical normalcy and brings awareness to the tremendous barriers the blind face—visible and otherwise. Natalie is a credible character and her fear is palpable and painful. From boarding-school life where she and her roommate are attacked by drunks, to back at her family's farm where all goes wrong, readers follow her emotional and physical struggle. First there's the compromised birth of a goat, and Natalie must reach into the birth canal to save the baby. As she notes "Even eyesight wouldn't help her now." Meanwhile, a rabid bear is beating down the barn door. This all-at-once action is a bit over-the-top, but it showcases Natalie's emergence from despair and her capabilities. Readers will enjoy the high drama and heroics.—"Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2010
Grades 6-10 Natalie, 14, is certain she is not like the other students at her new school for the blind near Baltimore. She sees herself as normal, even though her vision is slowly disappearing, and at first, she doesnt think she needs to learn Braille or use a white cane. Cummings spent a year with blind students, and she gets the compelling facts and feelings exactly right: the many causes of blindness, sudden and gradual; Natalies angry denial; the technical specifics about Braille; and the doctors explanations and therapy suggestions. But this is more than just a message-driven docu-novel, and readers will be caught up in the engaging personal narrative, the spot-on teen talk, and the plot twists, as Natalie and her friend are attacked at night, and she overcomes her fear of walking to the nearby shopping center. The young characters courage is unforgettable, and so are the heartbreaking details: by habit, Natalie looks out the window, even after her sight loss grows until she sees nothing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011
As fourteen-year-old Natalie's sight fails, her parents send her to a school for blind children, where she acquires the skills to cope with her disability. Cummings realistically portrays Natalie's emotional states (from denial to determination) and the day-to-day challenges of a newly blind person, from crossing the street to learning to use adaptive computer technology.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)