Five Flavors of Dumb by: Antony John
I just recently finished reading Five Flavors of Dumb by: Antony John. John’s novel is a realistic fiction book that is about a girl finally finding out who she really is and what she 's really made of. Despite the fact that Piper, the main protagonist, is deaf, she never gives up on what she believes in. The novel mainly focuses on the problems that a deaf Piper faces while trying to manage a rock band. Not only does the story project her problem dealing with the band, Dumb, but it also shows the challenges she has to face at home. Five Flavors of Dumb displays Piper’s struggles with her family in a great way. Piper and her baby sister, Grace, are the only ones who are deaf in their family until her parents give Grace an expensive transplant that enables her to hear. However, the real problem is that they (her parents) took money from her college fund to pay for the transplants. This creates a rift in the family in which Piper believes her parents, especially her father, don’t care about her as much as Grace. John made the family seem like real, genuine people who have problems like everyone else. Usually most authors write about the perfect family who you can always count on or who are always missing; however, John writes about this family that you can always count on, yet they aren 't perfect and have their own flaws. I think Piper comes to realize this during the novel. Another important aspect of this book is the band, Dumb. This band faces the challenge of finding a real paying gig. Also having a manager who is deaf and can barely hear the music being played doesn 't really help them achieve their goal. I think Dumb was really great throughout the novel. The reader learned many things about each member you would never have guessed. You could hear everyone’s voices and feelings very clearly even though the story was told through Piper’s point of view. For example, during the story, you get a glimpse of the pain Kallie feels, especially right before