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Squeaky Wheels: Travels with My Daughter by Train, Plane, Metro, Tuk-tuk and Wheelchair
Part comparative cultural study, part mother-and-daughter travel memoir, multi-cultural and multi-lingual (Japanese, English, French, and Sign Language) adventures with her teen — a dual-citizenship artist, who happens to be deaf, with cerebral palsy — through subterranean Tennessee, to the islands of Japan, to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and ultimately to independence.
182 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2019
15 people are currently reading
1047 people want to read
About the author
Suzanne Kamata
43 books300 followersFive-time Pushcart Prize nominee Suzanne Kamata is the author of the memoir Squeaky Wheels: Travels with My Daughter by Train, Plane, Metro, Tuk-tuk and Wheelchair (Wyatt-Mackenzie, 2019); the novels Indigo Girl (GemmaMedia, 2019), The Mermaids of Lake Michigan (Wyatt-Mackenzie, 2017), Screaming Divas (Merit Press, 2014), Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible (GemmaMedia, 2013) and Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press, 2008); and editor of three anthologies - The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan, Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs, and Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2009). Her short fiction and essays have appeared widely. She was a winner in the memoir category of the Half the World Global Literati Award.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 12, 2019
I really loved this mother-daughter travel story. When I started it, I thought it would show how Suzanne Kamata made it possible for her daughter to travel overseas from their home in Japan. Lilia was born three months premature and developed cerebral palsy and lost her hearing at birth. Suzanne had always imagined traveling to Paris with her daughter. Most of the story centers around this trip—either gearing up for it or the sites they visited there and how they navigated a pretty inaccessible city with a wheelchair. By the end of the book, I realized it wasn’t just about what Suzanne brought to her daughter (art, travel, independence), but also about how Suzanne saw her daughter grow and become an independent young woman with friends, interests, and travels of her own. That was the most touching part of the book. I also love reading about Suzanne’s background and how she got to Japan and became a part of a Japanese family. Her writing is intimate and honest and the reader will feel like she’s along for the ride, too.
April 28, 2019
This non-fiction story is about a woman and her daughter. The daughter is both deaf and in a wheelchair.
I found this book so interesting. It's an uphill battle for the two of them, because the mom is American and they are in Japan. Because of her hearing impairment, the daughter can't learn English very well. The mom has to communicate with the daughter using Japanese sigh language.
I learned so much from this book. Did you know that if you know Japanese sign language, you STILL can't speak in sign language in the United States? The States uses American Sign Language.
Did you know lack of ramps and elevators means that a person in a wheelchair can suddenly not go along with everybody else? (Or they have to pick her up and carry her. And the wheelchair.)
Did you know that McDonalds has a wheelchair accessible restroom--except the toilet paper was too high for a person to reach, if that person can not stand?
This book helped me become more empathic for people with disabilities, and understand their difficulties better.
I found this book so interesting. It's an uphill battle for the two of them, because the mom is American and they are in Japan. Because of her hearing impairment, the daughter can't learn English very well. The mom has to communicate with the daughter using Japanese sigh language.
I learned so much from this book. Did you know that if you know Japanese sign language, you STILL can't speak in sign language in the United States? The States uses American Sign Language.
Did you know lack of ramps and elevators means that a person in a wheelchair can suddenly not go along with everybody else? (Or they have to pick her up and carry her. And the wheelchair.)
Did you know that McDonalds has a wheelchair accessible restroom--except the toilet paper was too high for a person to reach, if that person can not stand?
This book helped me become more empathic for people with disabilities, and understand their difficulties better.
May 26, 2019
Suzanne Kamata grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan. She went to Japan to teach English, fell in love, and married a Japanese man. She gave birth to micro-preemie twins, one of whom was deaf and had cerebral palsy. Kamata recounts her struggles in learning to support and advocate for her daughter, while fostering independence at the same time. She writes about her first overseas travels to the US, and local trips around Japan. Kamata received a grant to fund her proposal to take her daughter to Paris and write a book about “accessibility and adventure.” (77)
Squeaky Wheels is an interesting multicultural conversation about independence and caretaking, but it’s also a conversation about being a multicultural family. Told linearly, it's an easy read about a perspective of mothering I'd never seen before.
Kamata manages to avoid the dreaded "inspirational" tale and manages to be real, likable, and deeply human. Look for longer review on Mom Egg Review soon!
Squeaky Wheels is an interesting multicultural conversation about independence and caretaking, but it’s also a conversation about being a multicultural family. Told linearly, it's an easy read about a perspective of mothering I'd never seen before.
Kamata manages to avoid the dreaded "inspirational" tale and manages to be real, likable, and deeply human. Look for longer review on Mom Egg Review soon!
March 25, 2019
I truly love this mother/daughter memoir about travel and advocacy and exploration. Told with love and humor, these essays are immediately engrossing and fascinating both in terms of their unique takes on locales both exotic and familiar, and as a wonderful example of a parent letting go of expectations for her daughter while giving her wings to fly.
April 15, 2019
Squeaky Wheels was released a few days apart from my own book, and for the last two weeks our two books have largely traded spots as the Amazon number one new release in one of our book categories. I had to read this book and find out more! My review is a little writer-nerdy because I just went through the process of writing a book myself and I really appreciate what the author of Squeaky Wheels has accomplished.
The first thing I noticed is the author’s skill in weaving a high number of themes throughout the book from beginning to end. Each vignette in the book can touch on any number of themes. These themes include the American experience of living in Japan, wheelchair accessibility in the US and Japan, deaf education and accessibility, world travel and in particular Paris… and probably more. That is a very hard thing to do with only a couple of themes! And this book would be interesting for people with so many different interests. I mean, the headline is travel with a wheelchair, but are you interested in art and the international experience of encountering art? There it is.
The second thing I noticed about the book is how it is written with a mother’s love for her child, Lilia. There is a difficulty in autobiographical writing, “How do I get my audience to care about me?” But in this case you’re standing next to a mother experiencing her fierce appreciation for her child. I supposed it’s a mix of autobiographical and biographical writing, and that’s a big win. The author wants the reader to see her child as she does- someone with an intense inner life whose experience of travel and art is as nuanced as anyone else’s, though this is more difficult for most of us to see through casual chit chat because we don’t know Japanese Sign Language.
As I’ve had an opportunity to watch my friends’ children grow up, it is so interesting to watch their tiny interior lives develop and find out who this toddler decided to be at 20. There are so many options, and we cannot entire predict which direction a life will go. I feel I have seen Lilia through her mother’s eyes, and become a friend. The book mentions so many different options for Lilia’s future, many of them beautiful and full of opportunity, and sadly some much more limited. I am rooting for Lilia’s future and hope someday to read in some passing update article that it is everything Lilia wishes.
The first thing I noticed is the author’s skill in weaving a high number of themes throughout the book from beginning to end. Each vignette in the book can touch on any number of themes. These themes include the American experience of living in Japan, wheelchair accessibility in the US and Japan, deaf education and accessibility, world travel and in particular Paris… and probably more. That is a very hard thing to do with only a couple of themes! And this book would be interesting for people with so many different interests. I mean, the headline is travel with a wheelchair, but are you interested in art and the international experience of encountering art? There it is.
The second thing I noticed about the book is how it is written with a mother’s love for her child, Lilia. There is a difficulty in autobiographical writing, “How do I get my audience to care about me?” But in this case you’re standing next to a mother experiencing her fierce appreciation for her child. I supposed it’s a mix of autobiographical and biographical writing, and that’s a big win. The author wants the reader to see her child as she does- someone with an intense inner life whose experience of travel and art is as nuanced as anyone else’s, though this is more difficult for most of us to see through casual chit chat because we don’t know Japanese Sign Language.
As I’ve had an opportunity to watch my friends’ children grow up, it is so interesting to watch their tiny interior lives develop and find out who this toddler decided to be at 20. There are so many options, and we cannot entire predict which direction a life will go. I feel I have seen Lilia through her mother’s eyes, and become a friend. The book mentions so many different options for Lilia’s future, many of them beautiful and full of opportunity, and sadly some much more limited. I am rooting for Lilia’s future and hope someday to read in some passing update article that it is everything Lilia wishes.
May 16, 2019
Much like the Eiffel Tower’s dazzling light show, Paris glimmers in the eyes of many, with countless people dreaming of travel to this alluring French capital. Author Suzanne Kamata did, inspiring her to see Paris as a young woman, and now her teenage daughter Lilia wants her turn (“a girl after her mother’s heart” as Kamata writes).
But Kamata’s memoir Squeaky Wheels, built loosely around how the two eventually realize a once-in-a-lifetime mother-daughter trip to Paris, along with other travels, offers a very unique perspective. It’s one that goes beyond how Kamata is a white American woman married to a Japanese man, raising their bicultural and biracial children in Japan.
That’s because Lilia is deaf, so she communicates primarily through Japanese Sign Language, and also has cerebral palsy, which in her case has meant largely navigating the world in a wheelchair.
Like many mothers, Kamata has a fierce devotion to her daughter and she’s resolved to help Lilia realize her rosy-eyed dreams as much as possible, including travel. Getting there, however, means negotiating the less-than-ideal and even discriminatory accessibility issues that invariably arise when you have a wheelchair and sign language involved.
Kamata’s determination and sense of adventure, combined with honesty, vulnerability and a good dose of humor, make for an endearing narrator. And Lilia’s bright disposition (“She exclaims rapturously over butterflies, heart-shaped pancakes and the first cherry blossoms of spring”) shines throughout the pages. With the two together, Squeaky Wheels delivers a captivating journey that’s also eye-opening, inspiring and a delight to read.
In addition, Kamata effortlessly weaves into the narrative a fascinating look at Japan and Japanese culture, including as it relates to biracial/bicultural families as well as people with disabilities. Artsy readers will also enjoy the visits to museums, from Yayoi Kusama’s polka dot wonders to classic works by Van Gogh, Da Vinci and Rodin. And with France and Paris in starring roles, Squeaky Wheels serves up an irresistible story for anyone besotted with the City of Lights and its nation.
But Kamata’s memoir Squeaky Wheels, built loosely around how the two eventually realize a once-in-a-lifetime mother-daughter trip to Paris, along with other travels, offers a very unique perspective. It’s one that goes beyond how Kamata is a white American woman married to a Japanese man, raising their bicultural and biracial children in Japan.
That’s because Lilia is deaf, so she communicates primarily through Japanese Sign Language, and also has cerebral palsy, which in her case has meant largely navigating the world in a wheelchair.
Like many mothers, Kamata has a fierce devotion to her daughter and she’s resolved to help Lilia realize her rosy-eyed dreams as much as possible, including travel. Getting there, however, means negotiating the less-than-ideal and even discriminatory accessibility issues that invariably arise when you have a wheelchair and sign language involved.
Kamata’s determination and sense of adventure, combined with honesty, vulnerability and a good dose of humor, make for an endearing narrator. And Lilia’s bright disposition (“She exclaims rapturously over butterflies, heart-shaped pancakes and the first cherry blossoms of spring”) shines throughout the pages. With the two together, Squeaky Wheels delivers a captivating journey that’s also eye-opening, inspiring and a delight to read.
In addition, Kamata effortlessly weaves into the narrative a fascinating look at Japan and Japanese culture, including as it relates to biracial/bicultural families as well as people with disabilities. Artsy readers will also enjoy the visits to museums, from Yayoi Kusama’s polka dot wonders to classic works by Van Gogh, Da Vinci and Rodin. And with France and Paris in starring roles, Squeaky Wheels serves up an irresistible story for anyone besotted with the City of Lights and its nation.
June 6, 2019
Just what I wanted: details of Kamata mother and daughter travels, and more insight especially into daughter Lilia. But now I want even more. When is your next trip?
October 27, 2019
Loved this book. Really felt connected to Suzanne and her daughter and enjoyed traveling around the world with them.
March 19, 2022
When Suzanne Kamata received a letter telling her that she had been awarded a grant to cover a trip to Paris and write a book about traveling with a child with disabilities, she burst into tears. This award wasn't only fulfillment of her dream to write a book about the perils of accessibility and adventure via a wheelchair. It was her daughter, Lilia's dream come true.
Kamata takes us through the meticulous planning, the dress rehearsals closer to home in laidback Tokushima City in southern Japan, and the determination she mustered to pull off traveling alone with Lillia, her twelve-year-old daughter.
In Paris, they visit virtually all the top tourist sites—the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Rodin Museum, the Orsay Museum, and even the Palais Versailles. All these damn steps, she fumes, at times. She knows how to make the reader laugh and empathize with the sheer physical and mental challenges that everyday life presents--whether it's Paris or Japan. Lilia's everyday life depends on not just a wheelchair but leg braces, a hearing aid, and cables for her cochlear implant's speech processor. And, the author wryly admits, a penchant for the latest fashions and prettiest shoes, even when they dangle off her uncooperative feet.
"I wanted to give Lilia every advantage we could give her." From an early age, Lilia showed prodigious talent as an artist, which her mother encouraged through lessons, trips to museums, and ultimately the trip of a lifetime to Paris.
"If people like us don't go out and show others how hard it is to get around, if we don't make ourselves a burden, they will continue in oblivion." Kamata goes into more than a fair share of detail about wheelchair accessibility at every famous site she visits with Lilia, even noting whether the Parisian toilets have been designed with the dignity of the disabled in mind. In another writer's hands, this attention to such details might get tiring, but in Squeaky Wheels, we need to know. We are cheering for not only Lilia but for every family member nurturing a dream of bringing joy and travel pleasures that would otherwise be unthinkable.
Kamata delivers a subtle but unmistakable message: communicate with your children. Find a way to reach them, get to know them, and for them to know you. Communication is no simple matter for the American-born and raised mother. Kamata relates entirely with her daughter through Japanese sign language—Japanese being the language she acquired in her adult years. By her admission, she is more adept at communicating with Lilia than her husband Yoshi or Lilia's twin brother, Jio.
"I don't go around feeling sorry for myself, and I don't want other people to pity me or Lilia. I want them to see Lilia, not as a deaf girl in a wheelchair, not as my inescapable burden, but as a well-rounded individual with a place in the world. She has a rich interior life. She has ideas and opinions. If only Lilia could communicate directly with people she meets, they would understand how interesting and informed she is.
The rewards for doing so make for a rich and complex mother and daughter relationship and a beautiful memoir.
Kamata takes us through the meticulous planning, the dress rehearsals closer to home in laidback Tokushima City in southern Japan, and the determination she mustered to pull off traveling alone with Lillia, her twelve-year-old daughter.
In Paris, they visit virtually all the top tourist sites—the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Rodin Museum, the Orsay Museum, and even the Palais Versailles. All these damn steps, she fumes, at times. She knows how to make the reader laugh and empathize with the sheer physical and mental challenges that everyday life presents--whether it's Paris or Japan. Lilia's everyday life depends on not just a wheelchair but leg braces, a hearing aid, and cables for her cochlear implant's speech processor. And, the author wryly admits, a penchant for the latest fashions and prettiest shoes, even when they dangle off her uncooperative feet.
"I wanted to give Lilia every advantage we could give her." From an early age, Lilia showed prodigious talent as an artist, which her mother encouraged through lessons, trips to museums, and ultimately the trip of a lifetime to Paris.
"If people like us don't go out and show others how hard it is to get around, if we don't make ourselves a burden, they will continue in oblivion." Kamata goes into more than a fair share of detail about wheelchair accessibility at every famous site she visits with Lilia, even noting whether the Parisian toilets have been designed with the dignity of the disabled in mind. In another writer's hands, this attention to such details might get tiring, but in Squeaky Wheels, we need to know. We are cheering for not only Lilia but for every family member nurturing a dream of bringing joy and travel pleasures that would otherwise be unthinkable.
Kamata delivers a subtle but unmistakable message: communicate with your children. Find a way to reach them, get to know them, and for them to know you. Communication is no simple matter for the American-born and raised mother. Kamata relates entirely with her daughter through Japanese sign language—Japanese being the language she acquired in her adult years. By her admission, she is more adept at communicating with Lilia than her husband Yoshi or Lilia's twin brother, Jio.
"I don't go around feeling sorry for myself, and I don't want other people to pity me or Lilia. I want them to see Lilia, not as a deaf girl in a wheelchair, not as my inescapable burden, but as a well-rounded individual with a place in the world. She has a rich interior life. She has ideas and opinions. If only Lilia could communicate directly with people she meets, they would understand how interesting and informed she is.
The rewards for doing so make for a rich and complex mother and daughter relationship and a beautiful memoir.
December 19, 2023
Courageous Story
A courageous on going story of the love of a Mom who fights for the freedom of her daughter to be whoever she wants to be & to travel wherever she wants to go. Sad to see the oppression of the Japanese culture still strong today
A courageous on going story of the love of a Mom who fights for the freedom of her daughter to be whoever she wants to be & to travel wherever she wants to go. Sad to see the oppression of the Japanese culture still strong today
December 27, 2023
I really liked this book and how it shared things about multiple cultures... I intend to recommend it to friends. There were a lot of references to art pieces that I'm not familiar with, but Lilia's travels and her mom's experiences navigating everything were still very interesting.
February 11, 2024
You thought travel was challenging for you?
Suzanne Kamata rises to the challenge of a trip to France with her deaf daughter who uses a wheelchair and who uses a form of sign language not commonly used in France.
Suzanne Kamata rises to the challenge of a trip to France with her deaf daughter who uses a wheelchair and who uses a form of sign language not commonly used in France.
June 25, 2019
Excellent book!!!
June 26, 2019
What an adventure! View of the world through the eyes of a child with disabilities and a parent just trying to keep it all together.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews