Speech Ebbs and Flows

In their new, mesmerizingly beautiful picture book I Talk Like a River, Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith take us through a meditation on speech and specifically what it feels like to have a stutter.

Through his beautiful poetic language, Jordan Scott fully captures the feelings of the child in the story, what it feels like when the words just won’t come out easily. He talks about the words being stuck in his throat, how the P in pine is a tangle of roots and C is a croak in the back of his throat. He clearly articulates the feelings of the words being stuck when he is at school, how his classmates look at him, seeing the embarrassment on his face. On bad speech days his dad takes him to the river and explains how he talks like a river. Just like the river ebbs and flows, whirling and churning. The comfort of knowing he talks like a river, opens up a new way of thinking for the boy in the story, a new way of understanding how he talks and a new confidence in communicating.

Sydney Smith’s impeccable illustrations perfectly capture the lonely feelings the child is experiencing. The wanting to blur and disappear. The illustrations are perfectly imperfect, washed and liquid in places, sharp and tangled in others. In each of his books, and especially this one, Sydney Smith transports the reader to the edge of the river on a beautiful sunny day. At the end of the story you are swallowed up by the breadth and depth of the river.

Books like I Talk Like a River are vital. There was a time when children’s authors wouldn’t tackle a subject like stuttering because of the way society viewed those who stutter. Thankfully, authors and publishers are sharing these stories so all children can feel comforted and seen, instead of feeling alone and wanting to hide.