I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott


Audiobook 

I Talk Like A River written and narrated by Jordan Scott. Published by Dreamscape Media (2020).

Jordan Scott speaks from his own experiences with stuttering in this audiobook, originally published as a picture book. In the book, a boy is full of language but cannot get the words out, he has a stutter and hides in the back of class to avoid talking. He is picked to talk in front of the class, and he doesn't feel great about it. Later his father takes him to the river and likens the way he talks to the way the river rolls over rocks and "stutters" like the boy. The boy goes to school and talks about the river.

I really like the book to begin with, Jordan Scott uses some beautiful language in the book, and Smith's illustrations are fantastic as usual. Here, in the audiobook, we lose the illustrations but they've added ambient music and sound effects for things like the river, most importantly (I think) we get to hear Scott narrate the book. The book helps de-stigmatize stuttering, it really makes it sound beautiful and I think hearing the narration helps with that. It's okay to stutter, there's no reason to keep all the beautiful language bottled up like the boy at the beginning of the story.

This is a go-to recommendation in the library when someone asks for a book for young people on stuttering. There is not a great selection of picture-book level texts on stuttering, and this one is done so beautifully, it easily has a universal appeal. I think whenever someone has checked out the picture book, I've always mentioned the audiobook as a great companion to it.

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