Official Review: Give Me A Chance by Beth Seiler

[Kaia_Faye]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Give Me A Chance" by Beth Seiler.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Give Me A Chance by Beth Seiler is a collection of eight short stories featuring children with a variety of disabilities. The stories attempt to explain these disabilities in a way that is easy for children to understand. The book features children with physical disabilities such as blindness, deafness, and missing limbs, as well as mental disabilities (intellectual disability and depression).

As is often an issue in collections of short stories, the quality of each story varied greatly. I enjoyed two of the stories (one about someone making friends with a blind girl and one about a girl missing a hand) and disliked two (one about a girl with an intellectual disability and one depicting a depressed man). The other four were solidly in the middle. I liked the range of disabilities depicted and how the author explained many that might unfamiliar to children. The author did a good job in showing how these disabilities act as a hindrance, and how others might be accommodating without being patronizing. I enjoyed some of the small moments the author included, that happen when meeting people with disabilities (ex. reaching for someone's hand only to find that they didn't have one).

Unfortunately, most of the stories struggled with striking a balance between telling and showing. Because the author is aiming the book toward children, I didn't mind the overt explanations of many of the disabilities. However, in a few cases, I wished the author had shown how the child was not that different from their classmates, as opposed to having the character say why they're not different. On the opposite side of this issue, one story was way too subtle. I had to reread a story to identify what disability the author was depicting. Depression is a difficult illness to show, especially in a children's book. The author was so subtle in her depiction that I doubt that many kids would even be able to recognize that anything was wrong with that character. The author was very obvious with the disabilities in all the other stories.

One issue I had with this book that might not bother others is the way the author depicted a girl with a mental disability. More specifically, I had an issue with the terminology used. The author used the term "mentally retarded" to describe the girl. The term "Intellectual Disability" is more widely used and is considered less offensive. The author also showed classmates calling this girl a "retard." It is a children's book, so it struck me as odd that it would introduce this term as an insult to impressionable minds. This story was my least favorite due to the insensitive terminology.

Overall, I rated this book two out of four stars. Two of the stories were fantastic and would have earned all four stars, but the others were all mediocre or subpar. If the stories were more consistent, this book would have earned a higher rating. This book would be good for any parents seeking to teach their children how to better accommodate their disabled peers.

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Give Me A Chance
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[AnnOgochukwu]

'Awwww' was my first reaction on reading the first paragraph of this review. I like that the author thought up a book as beautiful as this.
I understand your reservations about the author's choice of words, especially in some stories. Writing on such sensitive topics, and for such a young class of people, requires a great deal of carefulness. I hope the author takes note of your observations, and makes the necessary corrections.
Your review was very interesting to read.

[Priyanka2304]

I got reminded of a song from a very renowned movie in my country. It goes by 'Give me some sunshine, give me some rain, give me another chance, I want to grow up once again.' Everyone deserves a chance. I am glad this book has depicted that lovely aspect of life so beautifully. This book has a lot of potential to improve.

[Wy_Bertram]

Very interesting concept behind this. I like the message it's trying to send. Sad about the execution though.

[Echez_]

Well I honestly don't believe introducing kids to this kind of story is okay by me. Yes obviously, I agree with the review when he mentioned that the he didn't agree with some terms children in this book as it might creat some negative impression to some kids. However, I really loved your review, I belive it's done justice to the book!