By Jacqueline Cutler
In children’s books, we expect to recite the alphabet, count or reinforce a moral to our young charges.
Very rarely do children’s books teach us something completely new.
“The Girl Who Heard Colors” By Marie Harris and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Young Readers Group, $16.99) is that very rare book.
It tells of synesthesia, a condition in which one sense triggers another.
In this case, Jillian, a little girl, sees colors for sounds and objects. She’s a sweet kid, in touch with all of her senses, and loves the touch of her stuffed bunny, the taste of maple syrup, the scent of wet grass, the sight of wild geese and the sound of their honking.
Jillian is a little different in how she understands the world. She interprets everything as colors.
“When she heard a dog barking, she saw bright red. When she rang the bell on her bike, she saw silver.”
All of this was dandy until one day in school, a dropped lunch box made a clatter. When the teacher asked what the noise was, Jillian said, “yellow” and the other kids laughed at her.
She heard their taunting as inky black.
Her parents took her to the doctor but he could find nothing wrong with her ears.
“I am as sad as a cloud,” Jillian whispered to herself.
When music day came around in school, and the children took turns playing different instruments, Jillian squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears – the racket made too many colors for her.
The music teacher understood.
“When I hear sounds, I see colors too! In fact, lots of people have a very special extra sense. It even has a name of its own: synesthesia,” he told her.
Proving that sometimes we learn something new, and important, from children’s books.
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