Silent Observer by Christy Mackinnon

Mackinnon, Christy. Silent Observer. Washington, D.C.: Kendall Green Publications, 1993.

This book is about the author, Christy Mackinnon, and her childhood. She talks about what her life was like before she went to school, when she goes to school, then while she is in school. She became deaf at the age of 2 from whooping cough, and her closest sister, Sadie, was partially deaf from the same sickness. Through her childhood, Mackinnon met very famous people in the Deaf Community such as Alexander Graham Bell and Helen Keller. She talks about her struggles with accepting the fact that she was deaf and the everyday struggles that go along with being deaf in a hearing family.

I felt this book was absolutely amazing. I was interested in this book before I read it but once I started reading it, I was turning page after page. One of the best parts of the book for me was when all of a sudden she mentioned her neighbor, Alexander Graham Bell, like it was no big deal. I was in such awe that she knew him. Then, when she talks about her experiences in the Halifax School For The Deaf, she gets to meet Helen Keller!! I was so excited about that too because I am so fascinated with learning about how Helen Keller learned to communicate. I think it would be amazing to say I have met her, but Mackinnon talks about it in the book like it was almost not as amazing as I would picture it. If I got to meet Helen Keller, I would be announcing it to the world; it would be better than meeting some movie star to me. But Mackinnon doesn't emphasize how she felt about meeting Helen Keller in this book, which shocks me.

Overall, though, I felt this book was great. I absolutely loved it and would recommend it to anyone, deaf or hearing, child or adult. It was not the easiest book to find, but once you find it, it's worth it. Another fascinating thing is how this book became a published book. Christy Mackinnon wrote her story and drew her own pictures but never put the book together. It wasn't until her neice found her story and her wonderful pictures years later and decided to put the book together and get it published. This book tells history right from a person who lived it. And that is the best part!