Listen
How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
* Schneider Family Book Award Winner *
A gorgeous and empowering picture book biography about Evelyn Glennie, a deaf woman, who became the first full-time solo percussionist in the world. A robust author’s note brings further detail and highlights Evelyn’s own voice.
"No. You can't," people said.
But Evelyn knew she could. She had found her own way to listen.
From the moment Evelyn Glennie heard her first note, music held her heart. She played the piano by ear at age eight, and the clarinet by age ten. But soon, the nerves in her ears began to deteriorate, and Evelyn was told that, as a deaf girl, she could never be a musician. What sounds Evelyn couldn’t hear with her ears, though, she could feel resonate through her body as if she, herself, were a drum. And the music she created was extraordinary. Evelyn Glennie had learned how to listen in a new way. And soon, the world was listening too.
"Radiant." —Publishers Weekly
"Perfect for elementary school readers . . . Excellent." —SLJ
"Beautiful." —A Mighty Girl
“Lyrical . . . Expressive.” —Booklist
“An intriguing, loving biography.” —Kirkus
"Engaging [and] vibrant." —The Horn Book
"Fantastic." —Book Riot
"I strongly recommend it." —Time for Kids
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Having learned piano and clarinet before being diagnosed with degenerative hearing loss at age 10, Evelyn Glennie (b. 1965) was determined not to forsake music, which "rolled through the farm hills" of her native Scotland. Drawn by her school orchestra's percussion instruments, she starts lessons with a teacher who suggests that she remove her hearing aids and feel the drums' vibrations in her body: "every other sense intensified, as if Evelyn's whole body had become one giant ear," Stocker writes. Embracing the idea that "her brain just listened differently," Glennie fights to attend London's Royal Academy of Music—resulting in changed rules across British music schools—then goes on to record albums, win two Grammy Awards, and be awarded damehood by Queen Elizabeth II. Digitally enhanced watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations by Holzwarth emphasize Glennie's experience of finding, per an author's note, "other ways to listen," capturing the figure's barefoot performances via swirling, radiant colors that pour forth from her mallets. Ages 4–8.
