I read the book You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner. The book focuses on friendship and the conditions of Julie, who is a deaf girl attending a new school with hearing students, and who loves art, especially graffiti. “Having an interpreter in every class is like having a giant neon sign hanging around your neck, blinking: Freak Freak Freak. I’ve been here three weeks and people are still confused about how it all works. It’s not hard: teacher talks, interpreter signs, I understand” (Gardner 12). That’s what Julie thinks how people see her in the new school that she’s attending. Julie is a deaf and very artistic high school student who gets expelled from her old high school when she sprays graffiti over another graffiti in the gym. The graffiti said something mean about her former best friend. Jordyn betrays her by going to the principal’s office and telling him what Julie did. Julie ends up getting expelled and attending another high school with hearing students. Distrustful because of her experience, Julie doesn’t find friends until she gets to know YP better. The author chose the main character to be a deaf teenage girl who gets into trouble a lot, especially when it’s about graffiti. What surprised me is that I would not expect a deaf person to get into as much trouble as Julie is getting into. I always expect deaf people to be quiet and to stay out of trouble. The book also showed how difficult it sometimes for the deaf people to lipread. They can also get annoyed when hearing people try to impress them with sign language, even though they only know one sign. The book showed me that all I know about the deaf culture are stereotypes. But reading the book made me realize that they are just like we are, they can be troublemakers and individuals who are independent. Julie also expressed that she is proud to be deaf and really appreciates her culture. She doesn’t always want be helped with hearing aids. This really surprised me because I always imagined deaf people would want to hear, although she hasn’t experienced it any differently. While her being deaf didn’t play a huge role in the book, the friendship part did. Her friendships are as complicated as any other person. Reading this book made me realize how very similar, but still how different we all are. This book stood out to me because the main character is completely different from me. At least that was what I thought. She is deaf, she loves art and she gets into trouble a lot. Reading this book made me see that she also has friendship problems and for her own protection she loses faith in friends and stays on her own. This changed how I think about deaf people. They are strong and as independent as we are. They may not be able to hear, but they make everything work anyway. And I admire that. This book made me admire deaf people. By Johanna H.
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AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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November 2022
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