NEW BOOK OUT TODAY!
*Please read and share!
Song in the City Book Trailer
A Summary of My New Book:
Today is the release of my new book, Song in the City. It tells the story of a young girl filled up to overflowing with the sounds of her beloved city. She tries to share that song with her grandmother, but her Grandma Jean is too busy to listen. Ultimately, Grandma Jean finds time to listen, and the experience changes the two forever.
About the Book:
Though the book, as of yet, has not received any critical acclaim (outside of Amazon.com’s September Editors’ Picks Best Books: Ages 3-5), I can tell you that this is the most beautiful and technically complicated book I have ever written. It took all the skill I had to write. And though my work seems to have fallen on deaf ears (the critics), I hope my words and rhythms will resound in the hearts of children who can see so much with hopeful ears.
The book is poetic and joyously rhythmic. Each scene of the book has a different sound/beat/rhythm. Yet, each scene blends to create a symphony for the reader's ear. I've said that whenever a teacher read a book in one of my elementary classes, I struggled to see the pictures because I was a Visually-Impaired child. Throughout primary school, secondary school, college, and graduate school, I appreciated words with my ears. Therefore, I like to say that I write word-based books enhanced with pictures. I write for the child I once was, the child who struggles to see or cannot see well enough to enjoy a good book.
The Story Behind the Book and an Explanation on Blindness:
The book's artist, Jenin Mohammed, did a fantastic job creating an authentic Blind/Visually-Impaired child. The book's hero, little Emmalene, is not held back by her disability. She holds the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) White cane. Why the NFB cane? The National Federation for the Blind promotes the idea that blindness is not a death sentence, that the Blind/Visually Impaired can function with and within the world. The white cane is a tool we use to navigate safely, but it is not a symbol of helplessness.
Another organization that serves the Blind/Visually-Impaired is the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). And while the AFB and the NFB go about the same goal in different ways, I appreciated the NFB's position on blindness because it instilled in me the idea I could be independent even after losing my vision. I am an author today because of the NFB's philosophy on blindness. It gave me hope to try and be what I thought I could not. That is why Emmalene carries the NFB white cane, not a cane with a red stripe, a reflector, or a ball on end. She holds a simple white cane that tells the world she can manage. She doesn't need to be pitied or coddled or bubble-wrapped. She needs only to be loved as she is--as a beautiful, vibrant girl who happens to be Blind.
Some staff at HarperCollins Publishers questioned the idea of a Blind/Visually-Impaired little girl not using her cane "correctly." What they missed was a nonstereotypical understanding of blindness. You see, only about 15% of the Blind see nothing at all. The other 85% see light, shadows, shapes, color, and images. Many can read, but with great effort and difficulty. And many Blind who use a white cane are adjusting to blindness, such as those with Retinitis Pigmentosa. For those adjusting to blindness, like Emmalene, life becomes increasingly difficult. The world washes out or slowly is crowded out by darkness.
Therefore, there is no "correct" way or "standard way" for the blind to carry their cane (outside of proper cane travel technique). Some who carry the white cane have night blindness. Some can't see in the day (because their eyes are too sensitive to light) but can see in low light. Some, like me, have a degenerative eye disease that blurs all clarity, making it difficult to read. Blindness is a spectrum, like any disability. Like autism and deafness. I am a high-functioning Blind man.
I recently had a vision check-up at Mayo Clinic about a month ago, and I remember something my eye doctor said that shook me to the core. "Yep," he said, "You are right on the edge where a just little loss of visual acuity could put you in a challenging place." That is how I live every day. I have one working eye, and if that eye goes, I will still be able to see but not be able to read. And while Mayo Clinic has returned a great deal of my sight to me, so much so that I can now drive again, I live with the reality that I could wake up tomorrow needing my cane for everyday use.
Daniel Bernstrom (right) graduating from the Hamline University M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program, June 2013
Before Mayo Clinic and the medical treatment my eye doctor put me on to help stabilize and reverse my progressive eye disease, I was losing vision by the year. My world was washing out month by month. This is the situation I was in when I went to the blind school and learned white cane travel, how to read Braille, and how to live without sight. In blind school, I met many Blind who carried the white cane like Emmalene. So when I got the chance to write a book about blindness, I wanted to write an authentic book about what blindness actually is for many Blind, a book written by a Blind/Visually-Impaired author who could tell the truth about what it means to live a joyful life adjusting to blindness. I was thankful that my illustrator illustrated Emmalene as brave and daring. From the pictures alone, one could surmise that this spirited child was probably told by her grandmother "to use her cane correctly," "to behave," and "to be careful." But any Visually-Impaired child will tell you that they hate using their white cane. Emmalene only brought it with her because her grandmother made her--oh, and it made a great conductor's wand to conduct the city's symphony!
A Cry to be Heard:
Why do I go on about this? To defend the truth about blindness? Yes. But also to tell you what this book is about, for it is my cry to be heard.
Truth be told, the worst prejudice I have ever faced in my life was not because of the color of my skin but because of my blindness. While carrying my white cane, I have been called "blind boy," laughed at, pulled, pushed, and made fun of when others thought I could not see them. I have been brushed aside, disregarded, and judged because someone thought me helpless and incapable. It was blindness training that helped me stand up for myself and helped give me the words to be heard. That is Emmalene's plight. Her well-meaning grandmother tries to control her disabled granddaughter. Tries to limit her. Emmalene desperately attempts to explain her independence in a way that her grandmother will understand, but her grandmother is too busy to take the time to listen. But once Grandma Jean takes the time to listen to her granddaughter, she can understand and her narrow world expands far beyond what she thought possible.
Conclusion:
Yes, my heart, my whole heart, is in this book. It tells a true and beautiful story. I think it is one that every house should have to not only delight the ears of children but also to teach them how to love someone they don't understand.
How Can You Help?:
So, I ask you, please spread the word about the book and the message of taking time to listen to those we don’t understand.
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It is vitally important.
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Love,
-Daniel Bernstrom