American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Special Issue: The Federation in Partnership REVIEWS
by Mary Tellefson
Reviewed by Kristin Witucki
From the Editor: Kristin Witucki teaches blind and low-vision children in New Jersey. She is the author of two novels for young readers, The Transcriptionist and Outside Myself.
Two Canes on the Tundra
by Mary Tellefson
Orange Hat Publishing
ISBN: 9781645383352
Available in alternative formats at bookshare.org
I vividly remember my very first cane book, A Cane in Her Hand by Ada B. Litchfield, which I read when I was seven or eight. In this book a young girl learns to accept her cane as her vision changes. At first she deals with feelings of frustration about using the cane. Toward the end of the book, she becomes angry when a pitying stranger misreads her cane as a symbol of helplessness. It was a good beginner book.
It is rare to find the mobility cane not only as a tool but as the support that underpins a whole narrative. Mary Tellefson achieves this in her book, Two Canes on the Tundra, which lays out a compelling and poetic case for the necessity of using a cane. The book is more complex than the one I grew up with, in that it respectfully provides a glimpse into a First Nations culture, and it's written for a slightly older audience, late elementary to early middle school.
The story takes place in an Alaskan Yupik village. Apu, age eleven, has a deep knowledge of and reverence for nature. He also has a dislike of making a change in his life—using the cane—that will increase his competence as a traveler but will symbolize difference to him and his classmates.
'The most compelling aspects of the book are Apu's family interactions. The story beautifully communicates the influence of family members when it is necessary to make a change. When Apu hides his cane in a janitor's closet at school, his grandfather unearths its emotional and spiritual importance long before Apu's orientation and mobility instructor reunites him with the physical object. In this way, Tellefson highlights the emotional weight of a cane in the life of a child. The climax of the book is a beautiful ceremony in which each family member shows Apu a unique reason for the cane's importance, demonstrating the power of ritual in Apu's transition from dependence to independence.
The book also gives us a useful compendium of Yupik words. Yupik words and phrases are interspersed throughout the story, along with their English counterparts, and a glossary is included at the end so students can learn the words more explicitly. My sighted fifth-grade son read this book with an eye toward the pictures. I'll admit he picked it up with some skepticism—a cane is such a part of the periphery of his life, so how could someone write a whole book about it? He thought the illustrations did an excellent job of helping to tell the story and introducing him to a culture with which he was not familiar.
The sole drawback to this book was the portrayal of Apu's sighted classmates, who only appeared through Apu's perception, never in scene or as unique individuals. Thus it seemed that everyone outside the family, except Apu's teacher, held him in an almost uniform contempt that changed by the end of the book into a grudging respect. It would have been interesting to find unique classmates who hovered, who showed possibly misplaced concern or amazement, or maybe who even valued Apu as a friend. Brink, the "walrus cousin," was a multi-dimensional guide with complex thoughts and feelings which were very authentic to childhood and early adolescence. However, I was a little disappointed that Brink went silent during moments when Apu described how he knew about things despite of and because of his blindness. While a long speech would not have been realistic for this character, I wondered what he thought. I wondered if his friendship with Apu would change and deepen, not just because he no longer had to guide him, but because Apu is a human being with interesting facets including and beyond his blindness.
All in all, this is an excellent book to introduce students to the positivity and complexity of a mobility cane in one's life. It also can help those who are unfamiliar with Yupik culture to get a taste that can inspire them to learn more.