Five Flavors of Dumb


 

Five Flavors of Dumb

by

Antony John

 

book cover, Five Flavors of Dumb

cover art: Kristin Smith[1]

Realistic fiction

 

Subjects you'll come across in this book:

 

  • music/musicians, bands
 
  • deafness
  • rock and grunge history
 
  • ASL, lip reading
  • friendships
 
  • high school
  • family dynamics
 
  • Seattle

High school senior Piper Vaughan becomes the manager of her classmates' semi-talented rock band, Dumb.  Between the in-fighting, a possible romance, and knowing that her parents have raided her college fund in order to help her sister, Piper must get the band a paying gig if she wants to remain manager.  She's up against people's assumptions about her capability because she is deaf.

 

  • "In this witty yet thoughtful behind-the-music account of Dumb's journey to semi-stardom...John creates a series of humorous surprises while demonstrating how Piper's deafness, which is integral to the story and never feels like a gimmick, affects her life and those of her parents and brother...[2]

 

  • "Written with a reverence for popular music-particularly the work of Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain--and a respect for its ambitious teen characters."[3]

 

Of note: 

  • 338 pages, published in 2010
  • Won the 2011 Schneider Family Teen Book Award for embodying "an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences."

 

Antony John

 

 

Book Trailer


Footnotes

  1. Cover image: www.bcplonline.org
  2. Review excerpt: Publisher's Weekly (2010) from www.bcplonline.org
  3. Review excerpt: School Library Journal (2010), from www.bcplonline.org