The Whitest Wall

“Kulp has created a new third-person Catcher in the Rye” –Lyelle Palmer, Ph.D., Special Education Professor Emeritus, Winona State University, MN.

“Jodee Kulp’s beautifully drawn characters will touch your heart, mind and soul.” – Bestselling author Diane Chamberlain, Before The Storm
The Whitest Wall has the ability to change the perception of how we view others, treat others and understand others. Learning how to deal with brain injuries, neurodevelopmental therapies and living with a neurologic brain condition, is life threatening for many. Without the proper support, understanding or human connection, these injured beings fall from everyday life. Sometimes these injuries are not always heard or seen and people live in a silent world of pain. Kulp’s novel, The Whitest Wall, opens the door to the silence and screams to promote insight.

Kulp writes her novel with a sensitivity that speaks to her personal experiences with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). She moves her characters freely and easily through her story giving them color and value so that readers are able to connect with them. This connection is what she uses as her learning tool. Her boomerang effect is that she teaches others about the nature of living with FASDs—she educates her readers on living with a neurological brain disorder.

The Whitest Wall, is meant to inspire conversation about FASDs. It is a novel that uses fiction as a vehicle for public education. Kulp interweaves her characters, she builds upon truth, sprinkles on fright and reality for flavor and delivers a fascinating story that will touch the hearts of everyone that reads The Whitest Wall.
— Sara Hassler, Midwest Book Review

FOREWORD

What you don’t know won’t hurt you is a lie.

… a big lie.

Knowledge is still power, and the power found in these pages is undeniable. When Jodee Kulp began to explain the insidiousness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) I did not get it. I could not sympathize. It was too much like an out of control virus that was taking over the world. But when I began reading the life stories of the characters in this book I became educated vicariously, without knowing it. The strength of story could not be better illustrated than within these pages. Full, rich, deep personalities walk through your imagination close to your family while this epic-like volume clings to your heart.
You will want to pick up the phone and call each one to say, “I’m right here, and I understand, or watch out.” The identity of these characters becomes so personal you just know you are reading their memoirs.
Fiction, as C.S. Lewis stated so well, ‘adds to reality, not just describes it. It enriches daily life and irrigates the deserts of our lives.’ I found The Whitest Wall so compelling I wanted to jump to the end, but I’m so glad I didn’t.
Life is complex and lives are intertwined to a greater degree than we think. We tend to be myopic, critical, judgmental, and basically self-absorbed, or is that just me? Jodee Kulp is so adept at casting the players in The Whitest Wall and so passionate a storyteller you will look at your neighbor through different eyes. I believe there are many books in this book and I trust at least there are many more books coming from Jodee.