Blind

Blind

Future Reflections Winter 2015 REVIEWS
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Blind
by Rachel Dewoskin
Reviewed by Deborah Kent Stein
Blind
by Rachel Dewoskin
Viking, 2014, 416 pages
"Going blind is a little bit like growing up," says fifteen-year-old Emma Silver, the protagonist of Rachel Dewoskin's new young-adult novel, Blind. Like most novels written for a teen audience, Blind is about growing up in all its frightening, perplexing, and dazzling permutations.
After losing her sight in a freak accident that also leaves her with a facial scar, Emma sinks into depression. She misses a semester of school while she lies on the living room couch, feeling hopeless and miserable. At last her parents take matters in hand and enroll her in a school for the blind, where she learns Braille and meets some blind teens who live active, even adventurous lives.
Although the school for the blind draws her out of her despair, Emma doesn't want to make blind friends or embrace her new life as a blind person. A year after her accident, she returns to her local high school. Accompanied by her companion dog, Spark, and guided from class to class by her best friend, Logan, Emma feels anxious and uncertain. Everyone knows what happened to her, and she is sure people are constantly staring. In the past she was quiet and flew beneath others' radar, but now she is visible all the time.
Emma is jolted from her self-absorption by the shocking suicide of Claire, a classmate she had known since kindergarten. Though adults try to help Claire's friends deal with their grief, Emma feels that no one is talking about the things that really matter. She emerges as a leader when she invites a group of classmates to gather in secret and try to sort out the truth behind Claire's death.
As the school year passes, Emma learns to travel independently. She discovers that an attractive boy likes her, and she finds that she no longer needs Spark by her side in order to feel secure. Eventually she reaches out to two of her classmates from the school for the blind and accompanies them on a skiing trip. She also becomes a role model for a nine-year-old girl who has recently lost her sight. The novel shows clearly that blind people can teach and inspire one another, passing forward the skills and positive attitudes they have learned.
Approaching this book as a blind reader, I feel that a few aspects do not ring true. After losing her sight, Emma acquires the habit of rocking; classmates at the school for the blind gently try to make her aware of this behavior so that she can keep it in check. While many people who are blind from birth or early childhood develop this habit, it is unusual in a person who loses vision at fifteen. However, the traumatic nature of Emma's vision loss might help explain her need for self-comforting behavior.
Even more striking is the ease with which Emma is welcomed back into the high school environment. Although she feels painfully awkward and unlovable, her peers accept her almost without hesitation. On her first day of school the art teacher expresses doubt that Emma can take part in a drawing exercise, but otherwise Emma seldom has to prove herself. Her experience is in stark contrast to that of most blind students, who must learn to advocate for themselves as they negotiate the barriers created by the fears and anxieties of others. Because Emma is so fearful and anxious during her first months back at school, it makes sense that she is not troubled by over-solicitous teachers and classmates. As time passes, however, she would likely begin to chafe against unnecessary and unwanted offers of help and the insistence of others that she sit on the sidelines while they do the things that need to be done.
In preparation for writing Blind, Rachel Dewoskin got to know several blind adults, spending time with them and their families. She became familiar with access technology and even learned to read and write contracted Braille. Dewoskin has created a bright, insightful, and very normal teen who finds that, despite her blindness, she can live a rich and productive life.

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