Blabber
Mouth is an adolescent novel written by Australian children’s author
Morris Gleitzman. It is about a girl named Rowena who moves to a new school and
is struggling to make friends. Her acclimatisation is hindered by the fact that
she cannot speak. Rowena lives with her father (her mother died when she was
young) whom she loves despite his terribly embarrassing tendencies. The story
is centred on her new friendship with classmate Amanda in the face of their
parents’ clashing personalities.
The story is told in first person from the perspective of
Rowena. Because she cannot converse with anyone other than her Dad and Amanda
there is a lot of internal dialogue which makes for very amusing reading. It
also gives the reader the chance to connect with Rowena on a deep level
straight away.
Her struggles with communicating with those who cannot sign
create both problems and humour. This alone is a very unique form of
storytelling and it forces the reader to differentiate what Rowena is thinking
and what she is actually saying (or signing). The language of this story is not
too difficult so students should be able to read this in a whole class
situation without being stumped very often. Also, this book assists in
expanding understanding of chapter structure as each chapter deals with a
self-contained issue that helps build upon the plot as a whole.
An interactive activity relating to this book could be to
spend 5 or 10 minutes trying to communicate with each other without speaking.
This would help students understand the plight of Rowena’s efforts at times. It
could also be a lot of fun, as is this book.
Blabber
Mouth is best suited for students from Years 4-7.
Josh Rouse
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