Wonderful book. It helps me understand how blind people interact with the world around them. Just because you are blind, doesn't mean you have to stop living your life. ( )

This was a really interesting book. It really made me think how I would react (probably mostly negatively) if I found out I was slowly going blind just like Natalie. The author did a great job to make it realistic and not too fantastical. Natalie sure went through some extra crazy things that the average blind person would not (events that is), but overall, it was an interesting read even though it was a little slow to get started. ( )

This story was a fast read and interesting. The main character was believable and the author did a wonderful job catching the emotional and psychological aspects of how a teenager would feel when something so devastating happens. I could just feel what Natalie was going through and could imagine the fear. This book could be scary for some students to read because of the topic of going blind. I liked that the character faced her challenge and after resisting help, started working hard.

Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings is about fourteen-year-old Natalie who is losing her eyesight due to a congenital eye disease. In order to prepare her for a future as a blind person in a sighted world, Natalie’s parents send her to a school for the blind. Natalie’s world is turned upside down when she has to leave her family, her school, and her friends. She has difficulty accepting the changes she must make in her life. Will she hide from the world or will she be brave and find a way to be successful in her new world.

The book would be an easy read for an early teen but the subject matter would be very valuable for any teen. I was very impressed with the author’s detail regarding the adjustments that one has to make to survive as a blind person in a sighted world. I as a reader was empathetic to Natalie’s worries and concerns and my thought is that Ms. Cummings tried to present blindness not as a disability but as a life challenge to be conquered. I give this book a rating of 4 not especially for the quality of the plot and the writing but for the insight a teenage reader can gain about the sightless and their world. ( )

Recommended Ages: Gr. 6-9

Plot Summary: Natalie refuses to believe she is going to go blind, even if her eyesight is getting worse and worse. She really doesn't want to leave her friends, but when Dr. Rose says it's going to happen, she ends up in the dorms at the Center for the Blind. She takes the typical subjects, like social studies, but also takes mobility and braille classes. She refuses to participate with Miss Audra, who tries to calmly reason and explain to Natalie why she should learn and practice to use a cane and be able to get to the store by herself, which is the final test. Natalie is completely confused by braille, too, and overall feels like she doesn't want to become friends with the others there. Slowly she becomes more open to the school and her new classmates, but is sad she is growing apart from her best friend from home. When Natalie gets a new roommate, who seems just as upset to be there as Natalie, will they get along? Will Natalie really go blind?

Setting: from Hawley (where Natalie's family lives a few hours away on a goat farm) to Baltimore Center for the Blind

Characters:
Natalie O'Reilly - 14 y/o, has juvenile glaucoma because she was born without an iris, grew up on a farm and is in support of guns, learned to count steps and rely on Meredith to walk her to classes, doesn't see how she will be able to attend college, tempted to live in the protection of her parents house
Meredith - Natalie's best friend,
Corelee and Suzanne - Natalie's other friends
Nuisance - Natalie's baby goat
Dr. Rose - Natalie's eye doctor
Mrs. Russell - vision teacher provided by the district
Frank - Natalie's dad, doesn't want Natalie to go to the school and maintains hope that she won't be blind, make cheese from the goat milk and the milk that is delivered
Serena Benson - in Natalie's dorm at the blind school, loves wearing black, one of Natalie's friends at the school
Sheldon - Leber's disease, can only see around the edges not the center
JJ - totally blind
Arnab - Indian, cute according to the girls, very proper and precise in his conversations
Eve - has a bird clock
Murphy - girl in the dorm
Mr. Lee - teaches the girls how to protect themselves during their gym class
Gabriella - AKA Bree - Natalie's roommate, not very happy about being there, slowly bonds with Natalie, lost her eyesight in an accident, used to cut herself, become blind from asphyxiation
Kirk - Bree's boyfriend who only stays with her because he feels guilty like her condition might be his fault
Paula - Natalie stays in her room for a night when Bree had a seizure, in a wheelchair, has an aide named Miss Riley
Richie Mengler - asks Meredith to the homecoming dance
Miss Audra - Natalie's mobility teacher, tells Natalie about what happened to Bree

Recurring Themes: hope, God, rape, blindness, friendship, independence, self-protection, family, goats, gun control

Controversial Issues:
pg 75 "rape is not sex!" and other things Mr. Lee says to teach the girls
Bree admits she used to cut herself, and she became blind from asphyxiation
pg 101 - girls in the dorm discuss if they've ever drank before, some of the girls had one beer, Serena teases Natalie for being too perfect for never having a drink
pg 166 damned
pg 174 - bitch, damn
pg 174 - Bree and Natalie are attacked by two drunk men, they are saved by a guy driving by who scares away the men but they are caught

Personal Thoughts: I've wanted to read this book for a while. I love dramas, but I didn't like this book. While it gave me a lot of perspective into what it would be like to be blind, I didn't like the way it was written. Sometimes it was awkward "it was difficult to see the girls' faces clearly, but she was able to notice that a couple were African-American, and that one appeared Asian." The chapters and plot jumped slowly sometimes and quickly sometimes. I never really got entirely into Natalie's head because I couldn't sympathize with her. I felt like I was being told things instead of being shown them. I did relate to her unrealistic pleas and prayers, and the fact that she tested her vision by seeing a door in her neighbors house. I felt like the author wanted to include everything that was relevant to teens in this book, including drinking, sex, cutting, asphyxiation, boyfriends, crushes, etc. The end was unrealistic with the amount of drama, including the attack, being accused of being lesbians because the girls are guiding each other, Bree's death, Nuisance giving birth and Natalie's having to stick her arm in the birth canal, and the rabid bear trying to break into the barn. But the thing that bothered me the most was that Natalie's parents drove all the way to school when they found out she was blind and offered to do anything, including Natalie's father who continued his argument that Natalie shouldn't be in the school. Why wouldn't a father want his daughter to learn the skills when she is officially blind now? I also thought Natalie was inconsistent. During their dorm chats she would be cranky and crabby until suddenly college students were there and she felt bad for them so she opened up. It didn't seem like a natural change to me.

Genre: realistic fiction, drama

Pacing: medium, there are awkward jumps from chapter to chapter because sometimes it's one day or less and sometimes it's longer, some action but more character development
Characters: many characters, mostly easy to keep track of except for all of the girls at the school for the Blind
Frame:
Storyline:

Activity: ( )