I Talk Like a River

An astounding articulation of both what it feels like to be different and how to make peace with it.

Full of reassurance and understanding, this is a much needed look at a common language problem. 

Lyrical and empowering . . . An important and unforgettable offering presented with natural beauty and grace.

Sometimes a few words can transform a child's life. In this autobiographical story by Canadian poet Scott (Night & Ox, for adults), a boy who stutters is given a new way to think about his speech. He describes words in his mouth and the anguish of his classroom: "All those eyes watching/ my lips/ twist and twirl,/ all those mouths/ giggling/ and laughing." One "bad speech day," his father picks him up from school and takes him to the quiet river, where they look for rocks and sit on the bank. "See how that water moves? That's how you speak," his father says. Following frustration-tinged spreads, Smith (Small in the City) zooms in on the boy's face as he watches the river "bubbling, churning, whirling, and crashing." He closes his eyes, taking in the words' meaning, then ventures into the water, shown in a shimmering double gatefold. "This is what I like to remember,/ to help stop myself from crying/ I talk like a river." Artwork makes the internal change a light-filled experience, an account of the moment in which the child experiences himself and his individual way of speaking as part of the great forces of the natural world. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists. Illustrator's agent: Emily Van Beek, Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management. (Sept.)

Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Gr 1-4—In first-person narration about the author as a boy, this debut brings readers into the world of dysfluency, that is, stuttering. The narrator, a white boy, sits alone at the kitchen table before school, imagining how badly his day will go, and it's even worse. The letters M, P, and C bring special terrors for the garbled sounds they demand of him in a school day, when the teacher asks students to describe a favorite place. His solitude is, for readers, almost unbearable until he returns to his understanding father. He knows about a "bad speech day," and takes his son to the river. There, without many words, he explains how his son talks like the river, with ebbs and flows, a rush of sounds, emotion, and meaning streaming. The boy's dawning realization brings the story to a resonant pause, in a foldout that opens to a vast four-page spread of the sparkling waters that surround him. And then the remembrance resumes, for when he returns to school, he talks about his special place in his own manner, his dysfluency making him and his telling unique. Smith's lyrical, color-saturated paintings capture mighty nature as well as the blurred, staring faces of schoolmates, who mock and laugh but mostly do not understand the main character's inner world. An author's note, in tiny type but very personal and expressive, outlines the journey Scott has taken to make peace with himself. VERDICT By turns heartbreaking and illuminating, this picture book brings one more outsider into the fold through economy of language and an abundance of love.—Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission

an empathetic conversation-starter for families seeking help for a young — or not so young — person who stutters.—The New York Times

This wrenching and beautiful book will give succor to children who stutter and expand the hearts of those lucky enough to take fluency for granted. —The Wall Street Journal

This important (and stunning) book promotes self-acceptance . . . as well as empathy —The San Francisco Chronicle

One of the most powerful books that I've read in 2020.—The Globe and Mail

★ This is unquestionably one of the best picture books of 2020. —Book Page, Starred Review

★ By turns heartbreaking and illuminating, this picture book brings one more outsider into the fold through economy of language and an abundance of love.—School Library Journal, Starred Review

★ In this moving, deeply personal . . . There is plenty for all readers to glean from this boy's 'proud river.'—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

★ Smith's watercolour imagery in the book's early parts is soft and edgeless. . . . . It's only when his dad takes him for a walk along the river that the art firms up. The pair are now framed by the darkly delineated silhouette of tree trunks while the crisp, subtle hues of autumn leaves are reflected in the water next to them.—Quill & Quire, Starred Review

An exceptional work.—Toronto Star

Deft poetic language pairs with the resonant watercolors of Sydney Smith to create a book that is more than a memoir and more than conveying a message. This is pain, turned into art, and written for young children. Incomparable.—A Fuse #8 Production

a sensitive portrayal of the isolation and stigma felt by a kid with speech difficulties. —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Jordan Scott pulls from his own childhood experience to explore the way his father helped him accept his stutter and offers support for anyone who is differently abled.—BC BookLook

From its sunlit, breathtaking cover illustration of a freckled boy immersed in a moving river to the lyrical text by a B.C. poet drawing on his childhood experiences growing up with a stutter, this is a book for all ages.—Montreal Gazette

This is a stunning picture book.—Sal's Fiction Addiction

Poet Jordan Scott gives us an empathetic picture book from the perspective of a boy who stutters. . . . Sydney Smith's flowing images explain and enhance the text.—BookLoons