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Book Title: My Brother Sammy
Book Author: Becky Edwards and David Armitage
Year
Published: 1999
Reviewer’s
Name: Deanna Giardino
1. Summarize
The main
character explains his many feelings about his relationship with his brother,
Sammy, who is on the autism spectrum. The story begins with describing problems
in the relationship, reaches a peak when the main character describes angry
emotions, then concludes with a resolution of understanding that the main
character has about his brother.
2. Issues
related to accessibility
The text is a
medium size in a serif font. The text is in black over colorful
watercolor-style backgrounds, which provides an okay amount of contrast. The
text reads left to right in a straight horizontal line with good spacing between
words and lines of text.
The images have
strong coloration and contrast overall, though the characters do not have
strong contrast with the background and it may be difficult to visually
separate foreground from background. The text tells the story and the images
compliment the story, so the storyline may be understood from text alone if the
child has difficulty seeing the images clearly.
There are a
limited number of characters and the storyline is clear. A distinctive and
repetitive sentence structure is used to contrast with the storyline of
changing emotions and engage readers. This distinctive sentence structure may
confuse some readers, but may be beneficial to other readers.
The pages are a
sturdy but thin paper with low gloss. The book is 25 pages. This copy has a
hardcover.
3. Characters
The character
with a disability is a supporting role who does not speak, except through a
narrator. This character’s disability does prevent him from communicating,
except for repeating a few phrases the main character says, so this may be a
key part of the story instead of an oversight from the author.
The character
with autism has an active role in the story’s resolution, and the solution for the
story’s problem is very inclusive. There is some “you/them” language that is
resolved by the end of the book. The portrayal of characters seems to be
accurate and not stereotypical. However, the brother with autism does not show
growth in the story. He is used to facilitate the growth of the main character,
so the main character can learn to value his brother’s unique way of
interacting with the world.
The story’s
purpose does seem to be to teach children without disabilities who have a
sibling with a disability about how to better interact with that sibling, which
could be a problematic approach. The redeeming aspect is that the book
encourages children without disabilities to step out of their comfort zone and
put more effort into understanding and bonding with their siblings, which is a
realistic problem for many siblings.
4.
Adaptations
The reader
could describe what the characters are doing in the images so that children
listening can benefit from hearing both the text and images narrated, since the
images could be difficult to visually understand. A discussion about healthy
sibling relationships is encouraged after reading this story to a child.
5.
Conclusions
This book could
help children who have siblings with disabilities communicate their emotions.
