American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Winter 2020 REVIEW
Dog Driven
by Terry Lynn Johnson
Reviewed by Deborah Kendrick
From the Editor: Deborah Kendrick is a freelance journalist based in Cincinnati. Most recently she is the author of Navigating Health Care When All They Can See Is that You Can't, published by National Braille Press.
Dog Driven
by Terry Lynn Johnson
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019
Available as audio download from audible.com
We learn in the opening paragraphs of Dog Driven that the main character, fourteen-year-old McKenna, is struggling with vision loss. She needs to be close to objects to see them. Her central vision is going away, and losing her sunglasses is physically painful.
McKenna's eight-year-old sister, Emma, has lost most of her sight to the inherited retinal condition known as Stargardt's disease, and McKenna now recognizes the same symptoms in herself. However, she keeps her failing vision a secret from everyone except her little sister. The girls make a pact: McKenna, a talented musher who adores her dogs, will compete in a mail run sled race through the Canadian wilderness to deliver Emma's letter to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, entreating them to find a cure for Stargardt's. In exchange, Emma promises to keep McKenna's failing vision a secret from their parents.
On one hand this is the tale of a teenager defying the elements, skillfully managing her dog team, and guarding the fact that she is struggling to see her surroundings. McKenna's evolving friendship with a fellow musher whose lead dog happens to be blind has some touching moments. McKenna sees the absolute trust her new friend places in his blind dog, and she comes to realize that other teens have real problems to face, too—sometimes problems they try to keep to themselves as she has hidden her vision loss.
On the other hand, the story might be seen in part as a cautionary tale for parents. McKenna's parents are consumed by grief and anger over Emma's blindness. McKenna, at only fourteen, is terrified to burden them with her own failing vision.
McKenna's little sister is chiefly portrayed as a sweet and feisty kid. She is smart and perceptive. Those traits are at odds with the references others make to her helplessness. While the parents hate the white cane, McKenna wishes her sister would learn to use it. Their mother still carries Emma about at times, and McKenna wishes she would stop.
In some ways, the most appealing characters in the book are the dogs—McKenna's eight wonderful huskies as well as her new friend's blind lead dog. Similarly, the most compelling scenes in the story are those that involve the race itself. The young mushers withstand the elements and solve such challenges as imposing cliff edges and broken sleds. McKenna meets these challenges competently (when she's not bemoaning what she can't see), and she cares for her team with love and respect. The author could have used her competence to convey a positive portrayal of a blind teen. McKenna's competence, however, is at times overshadowed by references to what is "wrong" with the two sisters.
At one point we finally see Emma standing tall, alone and confident with her white cane. The image seems to resonate with our heroine, offering her a hopeful glimpse of the future.
Terry Lynn Johnson has published several young-adult novels that focus on outdoor adventures. She does that well. She knows what it is to be a musher, to manage a team of dogs, and to interact with the Canadian wilderness and weather. She has brought that world into vivid perspective in this book and shared a little of what vision loss can be like for a teenager as well.
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