The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Will Halpin is your ordinary deaf kid starting all over at a new school: he grudgingly befriends the geekiest kid, and hopelessly falls for the prettiest girl - then moves on to solving the death of the star quarterback.

The book is a slow starter, focusing on Will's reaction to starting at his new school and the new people around him. He has difficulties in a school where no one knows much about deafness - teachers forget to turn their faces toward him so he can lipread, he can't hear the bell announcing the end of class, and no one around him speaks American sign language. Sometimes the teachers and students are even casually cruel or willfully ignorant.

Devon Smiley, the only person who bothers talking to Will, is possibly also the only kid lower on the social ladder. Will takes it all in stride, determined to mainstream after fighting the deaf politics at his old school. There are a lot of serious issues in this book besides the murder - Coaler High is full of ugly secrets.

When the mystery finally kicks in halfway through, Will and his new friend Devon Smiley form a Chet and Frank Hardy amateur sleuth team to track down the truth. It's not much of a mystery, but Will is an appealing  character and his voice carries the book.

A few suggestions for further reading:
Young detectives who are not the Hardy Boys:

• Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator, also by Josh Berk
• The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford - a murder mystery starring a teen who takes a summer job in a morgue

More books with deaf protagonists:

• Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John - Piper is a fantastic character who manages a band called Dumb - even though Piper can't hear their music
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick - This book tells its story through words and illustrations as two young people in different follow similar paths into New York City

If you want to learn another language (even knowing only how to fingerspell helped Devon and Will communicate):

• 1,000 Signs of Life: Basic ASL for Everyday Conversation by Gallaudet University Press

Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As a boy in Minnesota in 1977 and a girl in New Jersey in 1917 both search for a place to belong, their quests take them on parallel paths to New York City.

Ben's story is told in words, while Rose's story is conveyed through beautiful pencil drawings. The drawings are the strongest part of the story, the written sections are only so-so. The parallel plots felt contrived because of the reliance on dreams and coincidence.

That said, there are interesting references to the American Museum of Natural History, cabinets of wonder, and American Deaf culture - plus a great bibliography and the author's story at the end. Unfortunately, Wonderstruck just doesn't hold up to its promising style and subject.

Fans of E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler will find hidden references in the text! And of course, fans of Selznick's style should most definitely check out The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was made into the movie Hugo by Martin Scorsese.