Middle-Grade Review: Set Me Free

For the Middle-Grade March  Readathon, I was looking through my extensive audio backlog for a middle-grade novel with an orphan in it (for one of the challenge prompts). It seems that orphans aren't quite as common as they once were in children's books, but I found one that gave me an orphan but also so much more. Set Me Free by Ann Clare LeZotte is a unique and compelling story about two deaf children with very different experiences in the early 1800's.

Fourteen-year-old Mary was born deaf at a time when deafness was poorly understood and deaf people were often mistreated. But Mary was born on Martha's Vineyard, where there was a large deaf population (this is historically accurate), so she was brought up in a loving family, surrounded by a supportive community where just about everyone spoke a unique local sign language. Mary's acquaintance, Nora, who is in Boston working for a wealthy family, writes to Mary to ask for her help. There is an eight-year-old deaf girl in the home where Nora's working who has been abused and neglected and is unable to communicate. Mary journeys away from her home to go work as a tutor for the child simply known in the household as "the girl." She is excited to act as a teacher for another deaf child but is also nervous--is it even possible to teach someone that age who has never known any kind of language? When Mary arrives, she finds the girl being kept in horrific conditions, treated like an animal, and understandably terrified of the cruel butler in whose charge she's been left while the family is away. Mary begins to try to get to know her and investigate her background, but the butler doesn't want her to meddle. Can she get through to the girl and learn enough about her background to save her?

This was such an engrossing, multi-dimensional story! There is plenty of suspense and tension, as Mary tries to help the girl against the butler's wishes, plus Mary's own experiences in leaving home for the first time and living with people who don't know sign language. The story itself is original and compelling, and I was riveted by the excellent audio, narrated by Nora Hunter in Mary's first-person voice. All of that is set against a fascinating historical backdrop, of the deaf community on Martha's Vineyard and of the plight of the Native Americans, both on the island and on the nearby mainland, which continues to our present day! The author provides extra information on all of this--and more--in Author's Notes at the end of the book, which was perfect because I was already Googling certain things mentioned in the book. The combination of a gripping plot, interesting characters, and engaging history made for a wonderful reading/listening experience.

Note: This is actually a companion novel to LeZotte's first novel about Mary, Show Me a Sign, which I haven't yet read, but it worked just fine as a stand-alone.

288 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - another Massachusetts 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

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Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the beginning of the novel, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     

 

Or you can order Set Me Free from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.