Title: The Language Inside
Author: Holly Thompson
# Of Pages: 528
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Source: Borrowed ARC
Level: Young Adult
Rating: 4 Hearts
Synopsis
(From Amazon.com)
Emma Karas was raised
in Japan; it's the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed
with breast cancer, Emma's family moves to a town outside Lowell,
Massachusetts, to stay with Emma's grandmother while her mom undergoes
treatment.
Emma feels out of
place in the United States. She begins to have migraines, and longs to be back
in Japan. At her grandmother's urging, she volunteers in a long-term care
center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems.
There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian
refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena's poems, dance, and noodle
soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay
in Massachusetts, or return home early to Japan.
My Verdict
Author, Holly Thompson uses free verse to weave together a
great multi-cultural story about family, friends, love, hardship, and what to
do when the language inside doesn’t match the language outside.
The main character, Emma, and her family move from Japan
(the only home Emma’s ever known) when her mother is diagnosed with breast
cancer. The family moves to Massachusetts to stay with a relative so that her
mom can be treated in Boston.
Her mother’s breast cancer, the move - it all leaves Emma
with a lot of stress and she starts to suffer from severe migraines. Emma also
experiences a lot of guilt having left Japan right after it was struck by the
tragedy of a Tsunami. She feels she should be there with her friends to help
clean up the destruction and start rebuilding.
Her grandmother signs Emma up to volunteer at a long-term
care facility while she’s in town. She is there to help a patient named Zena ,
who suffers from locked-in syndrome, write poetry. The only way Zena can communicate is with her eyes. Emma has
to hold up an alphabet board organized by row and color, reading each one out
until Zena looks up to select a letter. I found this dynamic of the story to be
very heartwarming as we get to watch Zena and Emma’s relationship grow as they
connect with one another through their mutual love of poetry.
There is also a small romance aspect to the story between
Emma and Samnang, a fellow volunteer at the care facility. It’s a sweet
relationship that develops slowly throughout the story but at times it was
frustrating too because they weren’t even going out but Emma would get all
worked up and upset if he hung out with another girl *insert eye roll*.
“I look at him
and he looks straight back at me
into me
and there’s a calm
between us
we are just sitting, breathing,
and I think we are smiling
with out eyes.”
As you can see, this book deals with a lot of different
issues; breast cancer, locked-in syndrome, post traumatic stress disorder, and
migraines, to name some, but it does so effortlessly, weaving them together
into one coherent and touching story about one girl’s journey to find herself.
