Prisha Lekhak

I go wild for reading books during vacation. Half of the books I read are e-books and the other half I read in the library. So, in my wild collection of books, the one that has touched my heart and is super inspirational is the ‘Invisible’ series. It is a three-book-series which is so amazing and encouraging. The author of these amazing books is Cecily Anne Paterson who is also the author of the novel ‘Coco and Charlie Franks’. The book Invisible is set in Australia and the author lives in Australia herself as well.

So to get back to the book, this book is about a girl named Jazmine Crawford. She prefers to be invisible when she’s at home and tries to stay out of the spotlight in public. She thinks that being invisible is the only way of not feeling things like the grief of her father’s passing, sadness, happiness, excitement and others. Jazmine also had to go through a lot of bullying and hate. She is also deaf which makes it even harder. She is not exactly deaf, just hard of hearing and her mom tries to make her normal and make her feel normal by putting deaf things aside as much as possible. Jazmine has also moved four times ever since her father’s passing. Then her world is suddenly turned upside down. She unconsciously followed her bully, a bad girl named Shalini, which then led her to terrible consequences. And she had to choose between being suspended for three weeks or help her drama teacher in drama productions because Miss Fraser, the drama teacher, was convinced that Jazmine helped save one of the drama props and had not done any intentional damage. Wisely, Jazmine chose the drama productions and eventually made a new enemy and a group of new friends and overcomes her deafness problem. She becomes more confident and happy and also stands up to her bully. So basically, that’s all in the first book and in the second book of the ‘Invisible’ series, Jazmine has to find out where to find her next courage because when she has used all her courage up in tackling the bullies and making new friends, she needs more courage. So she decides to become invincible. She also develops a teacher-student bind with Miss Fraser, who’s the only person Jazmine trusted during her hard times because without Miss Fraser, she would have been staying at home wasting her time in suspension. Also her hearing best friend Gabrielle, who everyone calls Gabby, is loud, enthusiastic, outgoing and confident. After finding out about each other, they found out they had a lot in common. Gabby has also move to different schools every year because her parents kept moving for their job. Then Gabby and Jazmine became best friends for life. When Jazmine was just getting used to living a normal life in many years, she suddenly remembers her grandma from her dad’s side. Her grandma and her mom both hate each other because of the misunderstanding between them on Jazmine’s dad’s passing. But then her mom decides it’s time to set things aside and get along with Jazmine’s grandma. Jazmine makes up for all those past years with her grandma and they bond instantly. Jazmine also starts a new hobby of gardening because when she’s around plants and earth, she feels refreshed and calm. So in the last book ‘Being Jazmine’ she has to find out which world is for her: the hearing normal world or the Deaf world full of interesting things? She also finally differentiates between her fake friends and her true friend Gabrielle. Then suddenly, she decides to join a deaf camp where there are people who are also deaf like her but they are fiercely proud of the deaf culture and feel like people shouldn’t differentiate between deaf people and the hearing people. They all have the same feelings, right? Then a new dilemma is thrown in her way, she has to choose between the deaf world and the hearing world.

Her hearing family and her new deaf friends but for now she decides to live on both worlds and be Jazmine.

That’s all about these books and the best things about these books is that they are really unique than any other books I’ve read, are really inspiring and show us how deaf people really feel as well. This series grew my respect towards the deaf people and culture and other differently-abled. And if you love a good cry after reading a book and love cheering for a female character who finally found her voice and spotlight, this book is perfect for you. As a reader, I would like to see Jazmine be more vocal to her mother because ever since her mother remarried, she and Jazmine have become more distant and the narrating style of the book is pretty nice too, but I would like to see more twists and turns and the series’ longevity. That’s all I have to say and I highly recommend this book for readers of all ages and whoever reads this series is sure to enjoy it by their hearts.

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