I Talk Like a River

Having a stutter is a distressing if not-so-common handicap for both children and adults. Here in I Talk Like a River, British Columbia author Jordan Scott delves into childhood memories, exploring the feelings he experienced because he was a stutterer.

Words do not come easily to the lips of the main character in the book, a boy who appears to be about 9 or 10-years-old. As he looks out onto his morning, the words for the things he sees are vivid in his head but are difficult to articulate.

The P in pine tree grows roots inside my mouth, and
tangles my tongue.

The C is a crow that sticks in the back of my throat.

The M in moon dusts my lips with a magic that makes me

mumble.

He spends the school day keeping his head down at the back of the classroom, hoping not to be called upon. The illustrations here point up the fear of the stutterer: on the left-hand page, the scene of children at their desks facing the teacher (who, however, has no facial features) is clear, the outlines of the human figures defined. When the boy is asked to answer a question, the image shown on the right-hand page is a jagged blur.

The father picks the boy up after school, and, seeing that his son has had a “bad speech day”, he takes him for a calming walk along the fast-flowing river. Somehow the action of the water and the soothing words of an understanding adult free his tongue.

I look at the water bubbling, whirling, churning

and crashing. My dad says I talk like a river.

This is what I like to remember, to help stop myself

from crying

I talk like a river

or from not wanting to speak at all.

I talk like a river

When the words around me are hard to say, I think

of the proud river, bubbling, churning, whirling and crashing.

Some resolution comes when the boy is able to get up and speak to the class about his “favourite place in the world” – the river.

Artist Sydney Smith, who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, clearly knows something about depicting water. Light brings the pictures to life throughout, filling the pages with a wash of peachy tones of the rising sun at the beginning and, later, the grey, green and blue swaths of watercolour and gouache mistily delineating river and shoreline. The most impressive spread is the gatefold at the centre of the book. It begins with the face of the boy, eyes downcast, filling both leaves. Then the pages open to a wonderful panorama of the sun sparkling on the water with the boy, seen from the back, bravely wading in.

I Talk Like a River is a special book that deals with a special subject. Schools and public libraries will need to determine if it is something that will fit into their collections.