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Piper's story stole my whole heart. #ownvoices that represent so many similarities to my own: hearing loss, learning to compensate, asking for help and yet set in the future that doesn't seem so far-fetched. This is my second Auslan title, the first being Impossible Music (Williams). I read many excerpts aloud to my family and they had epiphanies of their own Asphyxia/Piper could put words to things I've never been able to express eloquently.

Today‘s #libraryhaul #bookhaul 🤗I live right between 2 libraries & one has more active participation in state library events, so I stopped by there this morning to grab a “sew-a-journal kit” for an upcoming Zoom workshop on nature journaling for Bug Read Hawaii. While there, I also grabbed a couple color-in bookmarks & hit up the new books shelves & brought home these 2 books because it‘s impossible to walk out of the library empty-handed.😉📚🤗

This compelling YA novel by a Deaf artist and writer features a deaf young artist and budding activist in near future Melbourne. Society has taken on Orwellian tones, with homegrown food suppressed in favour of reconditioned nutrients. Fuel becomes so expensive that people switch to bicycles, and trees become scarce on account of tree vandals. Each page of the novel is decorated, adding to the overall appeal. #OzLit

If you spell deaf with a lowercase d, it just means that your ears don‘t work. But Robbie, she‘s Deaf with a capital D, to show that she‘s not just unable to hear, but that she belongs to the Deaf community and uses Auslan. It‘s a cultural thing, using the word as a proper noun.

He‘s talking as if I‘ve been denied my birthright. As if being Deaf is such an important part of my identity that I need to spend time with other Deaf people. I thought that Deafness was meant to be like having freckles—something that fades into the background so you don‘t really notice it after a bit.

In the near future Australia of this novel, Biospore is shaped into recognizable meals. Artists also use it create edible art, like a Frozen Charlotte doll that tastes of hot chips and cream. (I learned about these dolls in Maria Stepanova‘s In Memory of Memory)

I get changed three times, then give up and just wear my warmest clothes—jeans and my thick jacket—because what‘s the point of looking gorgeous if your teeth are chattering?

“Why all the security?” I ask.
“Tree vandals.”

I learned from this novel that Australian Sign Language (Auslan) is quite different from American Sign Language.