Book Review: “Elsa and the Motmot” by Danielle Thompson-Ochoa

Review by Rebecca-Anne Withey.

Danielle Thompson-Ochoa is the only deaf person from the Caribbean to have written a book for young readers. Her debut publication, “Elsa and the Motmot” was released this Autumn and its main character, Elsa, is deaf.

Aimed at young readers and teenagers, this delightful short book introduces the readers to Elsa, a young deaf girl who has a special affinity with animals.

Elsa has a hearing family and when she converses with them and her friends she lipreads and is spoken to slowly and clearly. Elsa mentions using her hearing aids and trying to ‘remember’ sounds, such as waves crashing against rocks.

She also describes how dull, loud sounds such as dogs barking only become clear when she sees the animal move its mouth, and she depicts how she mishears others and so uses her instinct to fill the gaps – a useful talent to have when she needs to make split second decisions.

The tale begins with Elsa preparing to stay with her grandparents in Toco, Trinidad for a month. The quality of the authors descriptions means that we can visualise the surroundings instantly. The lush green trees, the brightly coloured parrots all came to life in my imagination when reading this.

The descriptions read effortlessly and with a delicious sense of detail. They were perhaps my favourite part of the book. The author has a great talent for expressing visual scenes and the quality of the writing is superb.

Elsa is written as a confident spirit, one who is highly observant and intelligent. She appears to understand the world using her intuition first and foremost and despite struggling to understand regular paced speech she has a unique talent for understanding a beloved parrot called Simon. Whether or not this she only hears him in her imagination, we don’t really know, but her rapport with animals is unmistakable.

Elsa and her friends, Nora and Colin (who are both hearing) land themselves in trouble when they find themselves dealing with illegal hunters on Elsa’s grandparents land. It is in fact Elsa who initiates the rescue of an animal that the hunters have trapped and she bravely approaches the hunters and challenges them to leave.

This kind of fearless warrior spirit is so wonderful to see, and admittedly quite rare to read. In “Elsa and the Motmot” Elsa is not a ‘poor deaf girl’ who is being helped, she is a leader in her own right. What a wonderful character for deaf children and teenagers to read about and be inspired by.

The book in itself is quite short and makes a lovely read for anyone wishing to be transported to the Caribbean with a lead deaf character in its tale. I would imagine the book suiting those aged 9 upwards.

There isn’t too much of an emphasis on Elsa’s deafness or on it actually being a ‘problem’, which is so refreshing to read. Instead, its made clear how characters speak to her at a slower pace with hyphens used in between words to demonstrate this.

I feel this book would naturally flow into a sequel, or perhaps even a series with further adventures for the character of Elsa and her friends. I really do hope to see more publications from Danielle Thompson-Ochoa and I congratulate Danielle on creating a story that deaf children and young teens can imagine themselves to be the leader of.

Danielle reveals in the authors notes that she grew up immersed in books as a way to deal with the isolation she felt growing up due to being deaf. She had never read a fictional book with a deaf character and this therefore inspired her to write “Elsa and the Motmot.”

Having role models in the stories we read is so important and especially so for young deaf readers. Danielle hopes her book will inspire deaf children to fall in love with reading books.

 

Elsa and the Motmot is published by Austin Macauley and can be purchased from Amazon.

Danielle Thompson-Ochoa is an Associate Professor at Gallaudet University, Washington D.C. She is the first deaf woman from Trinidad and Tobago to hold a PhD. Besides teaching she flies yearly to her native Trinidad and Tobago to work with deaf people and empower them to excel in academics and achieve their dreams.