Sound Friendships — Elizabeth Yates

Gr 5 Up The training of hearing aide dogs and the process of bonding with their deaf owners is the subject of this book that imparts information through the framework of a story. A young deaf woman, accepted into one of the few programs providing hearing ear service, is matched with a dog and attends an intensive training course. The remainder of the book details their first year together. The bonding process is presented as spiritual in nature as the hearing aide dog enhances the quality of life for its deaf owner. Indeed, although the writing is somewhat dry, the story presented here gives an upbeat portrait. The dog provides the woman with a way of overcoming obstacles. She becomes more self assured, gains recognition at the office, makes new friends, and becomes romantically involved. Yates was fortunate: she points out in regard to other owners and their dogs that there are sometimes compatibility problems. A more straightforward account is Patricia Curtis' Cindy, a Hearing Ear Dog (Dutton, 1981) which has less fictionalizing and presents information clearly and concisely. Curtis' book also has photographs and a list of organizations. Sound Friendships reads as a story, and information must be culled from it. An additional title in a subject area in which little else is available. Susan Nemeth McCarthy, Arlington County Public Library, Va.