Party Problems - (Emma Every Day) by C L Reid

About the Book

Eight-year-old Emma is excited about her best friend Izzie's birthday party, but she is also a little worried because she is deaf and communicates through sign language, and her cochlear implant does not work well in noisy crowds.

Book Synopsis

Emma is excited about Izzie's birthday party. But she's also nervous. Is her dress too fancy? Will she know anyone else at the party? Did she buy the right gift? Will Emma's worries ruin her chance to have fun? Find out how Emma handles her party problems in this early chapter book from the Emma Every Day series. Emma is Deaf and often uses sign language to communicate, and each book includes an ASL fingerspelling chart, a sign language guide, a glossary, and content-related questions.

Review Quotes

As Emma gets ready for her best friend Izzie's birthday party, she worries about her gift--and whether she'll understand her friends. Like the author of this early reader, Emma is deaf, wears a cochlear implant (CI), and signs in American Sign Language (ASL). This first installment in the Emma Every Day series opens with a visual guide to the white girl, her family, African American best friend, and pet fish, as well as a fingerspelling guide to the ASL manual alphabet and numbers. In three short chapters, Emma experiences both common kid events, such as dancing and playing games at a party, and those unique to deaf children, such as having to adjust her CI to interpret speech amidst loud noises. Accompanied by lively illustrations in an animated style and featuring a diverse cast, the text recognizes signed and spoken communication and includes manual spellings of fun words like mermaid. In a concluding "Learn to Sign" section, a brown skinned girl demonstrates how to sign birthday and other related words. A delightful, much needed #OwnVoices story.--Angela Leeper "Booklist"

Eight-year-old Emma is worried that being Deaf will make it hard to enjoy her best friend's party. In this first entry of Reid's debut early-reader series, the author introduces Emma, who is white and Deaf, as she nervously gets ready for Izzie's birthday party. Emma has worries common to all children, like whether her black, hearing best friend will like her gift, as well as the uniquely d/Deaf concern that she won't understand what anyone says at the party. Izzie and her cousin Sarah, who is white, make sure Emma feels welcome, and she ultimately has a great time. Emma uses both a cochlear implant and American Sign Language. The author refreshingly presents this simply as Emma's reality, as it is for many Deaf children, and does not set up cochlear implants and signing as mutually exclusive. The cute, simple, big-eyed illustrations show off Emma's cochlear implant and support the text. The book includes a guide to ASL fingerspelling and a few basic signs as well as fingerspelled words sprinkled throughout the text. These are a fun addition, though it's too bad there are not working signs included as well, as that would be even more useful to readers who want to learn to use ASL. The backmatter does present some signs relevant to the story as well as a glossary and writing and discussion prompts. A fun, bubbly early reader featuring an endearing Deaf protagonist. (learn to sign, glossary, write about it, talk about it, about the author, about the illustrator) (Early reader. 5-7)-- "Kirkus Reviews"