The Words in My Hands

The author, Asphyxia, tells a powerful tale of becoming in The Words in My Hands. Sixteen-year-old Piper McBride is a Deaf girl raised by a hearing mother in a manner designed to circumvent but also largely ignore her hearing loss. When Piper meets 19-year-old Marley, however, he refers to himself as CODA (Child or a Deaf Adult) and he introduces Piper to his Deaf mother, Robbie. Piper’s circle of friends enlarges rapidly as she becomes a member of a vibrant Deaf community. Set in a near-future time of food scarcity, environmental destruction, and corrupt political and business leadership, The Words in My Hands relates the story of a young woman trying to discover, establish, and assert her developing identity.

Asphyxia is a Deaf artist and writer who lives in Australia. As such, the sign language referred to throughout the book is Auslan (Australian sign language). As the following excerpt illustrates, one of the many values of The Words in My Hands is that it provides for hearing and non-hearing readers some insights into Deaf culture:

“You have talent, Piper. This whole book is an artwork in itself.” He stops and points at the word deaf on my fingerspelling chart. “That should have a capital D.”

“What do you mean?”

“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. When we talk about Greek culture or Italian culture, we start them with capital letters too.” (p. 271)

The Words in My Hands is presented as Piper’s art-diary, where each entry begins with the date. The events of the book take place over a six month period, with progress from the initial journal entry on 17 June through to a final summer solstice entry on 21 December. It is important to note the book is set in Australia, so the seasons are the reverse of the northern hemisphere seasons of Canada. The pages of the diary are enhanced with decorative borders and various works of art by the protagonist. The borders and artworks are heavily textured and often brightly coloured. They add visual interest and appeal, but they also serve similar purposes to the artwork in a picture book in that they share with the written text the burden of carrying the story forward. In some instances they do this by reflecting the thoughts and moods of the protagonist. They also

provide physical depictions—albeit somewhat stylized—of a number of the book’s characters. The artwork is a mix of collage, pencil and ink drawings, and a variety of paint media and techniques.

Young adult readers will surely find Asphyxia’s presentation of Piper’s challenges compelling. The art-journal form is not a gimmick in Asphyxia’s hands; the diary entries—complete with Piper’s drawings, collages, text-message excerpts, handwritten notes, and news clippings—show how a young person can use art and writing to explore and make sense of a confusing world.

Piper’s world is confusing, indeed. Piper experiences financial struggle, discovers love, loses touch with her best friend, creates a sustainable community garden, and fights to become a capital D Deaf person. Asphyxia’s well-structured plot and short chapter entries, however, keep the various threads of the story moving swiftly forward together. The fast pace does not detract from the author’s convincing characterisation. The book is populated with an interesting and varied cast of characters, most of whom are fully realized, flaws and all. Piper is portrayed as simultaneously vulnerable and strong. Her love interest, Marley, is thoughtful while, at times, completely thoughtless. These idiosyncrasies make these young characters feel authentic, helping avoid an overly sentimental rendering of the teenage experience.

Despite its many strengths, there are some problems with the book. A weakness of the journal-as-novel format is the ever-present problem of tense. The events recorded in a journal will almost always have occurred prior to being written down, thus they would be recorded in the past tense. However, The Words in My Hands storybook/journal is written in the present tense. This is even so in instances where Piper explicitly states she wishes she had her journal with her. These moments of incongruency briefly shift the reader’s attention to the form of the book rather than the content of the story.

It is also appropriate to acknowledge the book has a somewhat convenient ending that simplifies many of the problems included in The Words in My Hands. The ending comes with a rush. In a book that does a good job of showing the messiness of life, the ending falters because all conflicts and tensions are tidily resolved.

On the balance of things though, the weaknesses of the book are outnumbered by the many strengths. The author’s focus on sustainable agriculture adds a fresh dimension to the coming-of-age genre. Robbie is a Deaf gardener who, as she puts it, prefers to work to produce food rather than work to pay for it. As Piper’s relationship with Marley grows, so too does her friendship with Robbie and her knowledge of sustainable growing. Robbie stands in contrast to Piper’s mother—once the lead scientist for an artificial food company who believes Deaf people should speak so they can be seen as “normal.” Robbie is a sage figure, and it is because of her care and guidance that Piper is empowered. Piper becomes able to confront her mother, feed her community, learn the beauty of sign language and, in so doing, she finds her voice—the words in her hands.

In Australia in 2020, The Words in My Hands was published to wide acclaim as Future Girl. The Advance Reader’s Copy provided by Annick Press includes two supplementary sections with an additional one to come. The “Dear Reader” section allows the author to speak directly to her audience about the rights of Deaf people, while the “art journal

ideas” component will certainly inspire her young adult readers to use art journaling to navigate their own lives. The future section on American and Australian sign language will surely prove an informative and important addition.

Although The Words in My Hands is more likely to appeal to girls, its fast pace and varied plotlines will engage most readers. The book has already garnered enthusiastic support in the country of its origin. It will similarly prove successful in North America.