Listening to the Rain

By Miriam Thor

Description:

During her freshman year of high school, Ally Griffin is determined to find her thing, a talent that will let her gain praise and recognition. Her cousins, Billy and James, have found theirs in sports and music, but Ally has yet to discover something that will make people cheer just for her.

At her best friend's suggestion, Ally tries ballet. When that doesn't turn out the way she hopes, she signs up to sing in the school talent show. Thanks to support from James, Ally's performance goes well, and she thinks she has found her thing at last.

But when James gets into an accident, Ally's whole world is turned upside down. As she tries to be there for her cousin, Ally wrestles with why God allows bad things to happen and whether she should keep doing her thing at all.

Book Takeaway:

Even when we go through something difficult, we need to trust God and surrender to His will.

Why the author wrote this book:

I wanted to write a story about dealing with something difficult happening to a family member. In that situation, it can be challenging to handle our own emotions while still being there for our loved one, and I wanted to explore that. I also wanted to include deafness and American Sign Language (ASL) because as a sign language interpreter, those topics are very dear to my heart.