FINDING A VOICE

A moving and compelling story of friendship against the odds.

Thirteen year old Jo's life revolves around her eccentric and mentally fragile mother. When she volunteers to help Chris, a boy with special needs who cannot speak, there is no hint that he ‘gets' what's going on around him. Jo spills out all her outrage, anguish and secret thoughts to young Chris, and strangely, the more she talks the more he seems to listen. Silent. As the friendship develops, Jo discovers that behind Chris' lopsided grin and gigantic blue wheelchair is a quirky sense of humour and a secret. Jo devises a crude system for spelling out words but she hits a wall of resistance when she tries to acquire the expensive specialist computers Chris needs. Jo explodes in frustration and ‘kidnaps' Chris she figures she can look after him better than the professionals, a decision that could end in tragedy. This is the story of how an unusual friendship between two young people unlocks the words neither knew they had. Kimberly Hood grew up in British Columbia, Canada. After earning degrees in psychology, history and education, she wandered through a few countries before making the west coast of Ireland home. Her eclectic work experience in education, therapy and community services has presented endless opportunity to observe a world of interesting characters, and usually entailed lots of writing. She has always had a passion for trying to understand life from the perspective of those on the fringes of society. Silent is Kimberly's first novel.