Joey is a fourteen-year-old girl, struggling with fitting in at school because she is deaf. Having lost her hearing when she was beat by her father at a young age, Joey has depended on her mother to maintain her connection with the outside world. Although she has become skilled at reading lips, she is unable to communicate with her stepfather, Ray, or her brother, Luke. Everything changes when Joey meets her neighbor, Charlie, and his chimpanzee, Sukari, who communicate through American Sign Language. Charlie wants to teach Joey, but her mother is opposed. Eventually, she begins to relent, but when Charlie dies unexpectedly and leaves money to Joey in order for her to continue her education at a school for the deaf, her mother continues to struggle with letting Joey grow up. Sukari, who had been placed in the care of Charlie’s niece, ends up in a research facility. Joey eventually learns that Charlie had left Sukari in her care, and she begins a quest to rescue Sukari and assert her own independence in the world.This book deals sensitively with the issues of deafness, as well as animal welfare. It also addresses the issue of child abuse.
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