Reaching Into Silence

by Linda Sammaritan

The rubella epidemic of 1964-65. The Vietnam War.

Both converge on twelve-year-old Debbie when her sister is born with disabilities and her father may be flying into danger.

Labeled as a “rubella baby,” Debbie’s sister Krista is born blind in one eye and with a hole in her heart. Although she survives risky open-heart surgery, months pass, and she doesn’t babble or crawl like most babies do. Doctors decide Krista is cognitively challenged—she’ll never be able to learn—and they advise her parents to put her in an institution. Just forget about her and raise their three “normal” kids.

Not on Debbie’s watch. She’s sure Krista is deaf, but no one will believe a kid.

Along with all the medical drama, Debbie must deal with problems at school—best friends who move away, mean girls who don’t, bullies, and boyfriends. Refusing to give in to self-pity, she soldiers on as Krista’s champion.

However, Debbie’s optimism falters when her father’s next orders will send him to the war in Vietnam. Can she hang tough for her mother, keep helping Krista, and prepare for life without Dad, possibly forever?

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 26, 2022

About the author

Linda Sammaritan writes realistic stories, for both middle grades and womens’s fiction. She has published a middle grade trilogy, World Without Sound, based on her own experiences growing up with a deaf sister in the Vietnam War Era. Book One, Reaching Into Silence, was a Carol Awards semi-finalist, a Genesis Contest semi-finalist and a First Impressions Finalist.
Linda had always figured she’d teach teens and tweens until school authorities presented her with a retirement wheelchair and rolled her out the door. However, God changed those plans when He gave her a growing passion for writing fiction. In May of 2016, she blew goodbye kisses to her students and dedicated her work hours to becoming an author.
A wife, mother of three, and grandmother to eight, Linda regales the youngest grandchildren with “Nona Stories,” tales of her childhood. Maybe one day those stories will be in picture books!
Where Linda can be found on the web:
www.lindasammaritan.com
www.facebook.com/lindasammaritan
www.twitter.com/LindaSammaritan

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well-written novel helped explain so much for me. As a child in the 1960s, I had a deaf classmate. She was fascinating, somewhat like the rest of us kids but mysterious in many ways. And at that time, adults I knew were not inclined to explain how she became deaf and what her life and the life of her family might be like. The author has written an important story on this topic for all ages.

[Jane Hartsock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was particularly interested in this book for its historical perspective of the rubella epidemic in the 1960s and resultant disability from the vantage point of a family's experience. As it ended up, that seemed to be more of a subplot to the book, which, on reflection, is exactly what that experience would be for the tween/teen narrator. There's a lot going on in a young girl's life at that time, and not every moment of it is going to involve thoughts of her baby sister. In some ways, that's actually it's own message--this baby is just a part of the family and sometimes that's incredibly hard and sometimes it's just incredibly normal, because that's what life is like when there's a child with a serious disability or chronic illness in a family.

Further, it was nice to see a representation of historical fiction for middle grade readers at a time when a lot of middle grade seems to be gearing toward fantasy. I recall when I was in grade school gravitating toward books like Betsy Tacy, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, Little House on the Prairie. This genre doesn't seem to be quite as robust as it once was, and I loved it so much when I was younger.

The writing here is also quite good, leaning into some more mature topics such as the pejorative descriptions of people with disabilities and the (accurately portrayed) views of the medical establishment toward disability in 1960s. So the book sits at a place where it can challenge a precocious young reader who wants/needs stories with more complexity.

I will offer the disclaimer that the book is also genred as Christian fiction which is a genre I have never read before--I had to google it to know what the tropes and structure of the genre usually are. Even with that, I did not find the religious elements to be heavy handed. Moreover, I thought Debbie (the protagonist) interacted with religion and spirituality in a pretty typical twelve-year old way, with wishful praying and bargaining that simply rang true to me.

All in all, I would recommend this book to sophisticated young readers who gravitate toward realistic/historical fiction at a time when so many of the books available to them aren't that.

[Sarah Soon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Young Debbie faces many obstacles: adjusting to another new city (common for a daughter of a military pilot), learning ups and downs of social protocol of adolescence, her newborn sister’s health complications, and the menacing Vietnam War.

Author Linda Sammaritan handles all these issues well, giving us comedic relief between difficult valleys. I connected with her protagonist, Debbie, and cheered her on as she navigated these complications.

I kept reading chapter after chapter wanting to watch Debbie overcome these hurdles, and hoping for someone to be her friend. And yearning to know what her sister’s diagnosis would be.

Definitely recommend for middle school aged kids to young adults as it could help them through issues they face. And adults as well to gain insight into a family facing health struggles as well as the uncertainty of military life.

[Breana Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great story about growing up in the Vietnam War era with a deaf family member. As the parent of a disabled child who is hard of hearing, the emotions expressed through the diagnostic process are familiar. The less-than-compassionate sentiments this family faced, a characteristic of the era’s attitude toward the disabled, are thankfully something foreign to my experience. It makes me thankful for how far our society has come from doctors automatically recommending institutions as well as appreciative of families who fought the stigmas placed on people with unique needs and paved the way for the the lifestyle we are able to live with our disabled child today.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Classic for Middle Grade

Debbie’s story reads like the books I read in upper elementary school. I love slice of life stories with relatable characters, more so when they’re based on true stories.
I also love when books include discussion questions.
I can’t wait to read the next book.

[Susan Plett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishingly good writing.