A few years ago, I fell in love with the book, A Blind Guide to Stinkville. This book, by Beth Vrabel, features a young girl with albinism who moves to a new town and builds a sense of empowerment she never knew she was missing. Of course I couldn’t help myself when the sequel came out, and A Blind Guide to Normal quickly became a favorite as well.
This coming-of-age story follows Ryder as he transitions from his safe haven at Addison School for the Blind back into a public middle school. Journey through every possible obstacle that middle school can bring, and learn a little about self-determination and self-acceptance along with Ryder and his new friends. I subsequently developed another book club that was launched for students in Texas who participated in online discussion groups and via Zoom meetings.
The content was set up in Google Classroom, but this was many years ago before we were thrust into the world of Zoom and other video conferencing platforms. As Low Vision Awareness Month is upon us, I thought it would be fun to inspire you all to share this book with your students, especially if they participated in the book club for A Blind Guide to Stinkville. The impact of getting students together with others who are blind or visually impaired is profound. Whether you set up a virtual book club or host one in person, I highly recommend this book for students in middle school.
Purchase A Blind Guide to Normal by Beth Vrabel
Our Book Club took place over 7 weeks, so the Book Club Outline is structured as such. That being said, I’ve also facilitated this book club with a group of children with albinism, and we read the book on our own and then met on Zoom to discuss it. In this instance, I used many of the questions to guide our discussion. Feel free to use this document as appropriate for your group.
Happy Reading!
