Shannon Stocker’s “Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion” Reviewed in Booklist

Booklist (Issue: April 1, 2022)
Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion.
By Shannon Stocker. Illus. by Devon Holzwarth
Apr. 2022. 40p. Dial, $17.99 (9780593109694). Gr. 1–4. 786.8092

Evelyn Glennie not only challenges the traditional role of a percussionist but what it means to listen to music. This picture-book biography begins with her childhood in Scotland, where she learns to play the piano by ear. But when she gradually loses her hearing, an audiologist diagnoses her with a degenerative disorder. Opting against attending a school for the Deaf, the girl defies her doctor's grim (music-less) prognosis for her future. The lyrical text instead focuses on Evelyn’s experiences in a secondary school, learning from a percussion teacher how to perform music by listening through her body rather than just her ears, and becoming a deaf student at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Expressive swirls of vibrant colors throughout evoke the sounds Evelyn’s body feels and the beautiful music she creates in return. The book concludes with a brief look at Evelyn’s career as a deaf percussionist, including being knighted by the Queen of England, while an author’s note fills in more details about this artist who redefines music and disability. — Angela Leeper