Nonverbal

2020 Gold Winner Pre-teen and Teen Human Relations Indie Children’s Book. 2020 Gold Winner Special Needs Human Relations Indie Book. 2020 Finalist, Inspirational Fiction Category, Next Generation Indie Book Awards. _____________________Fifteen-year-old Jake Prescott may not be able to talk, but nobody would ever call him quiet! Jake is a non-speaking high school freshman with Down syndrome who uses music to coax his words out. His older sister, Emily, is often embarrassed by his antics and especially by having to help him sing his words.....even in public. When the family is forced out of their home at the beginning of her senior year, Emily has to become Jake’s personal chauffeur and babysitter. But the year will turn out to be different than they both imagined. Before the first bell of the new school year rings, they meet a strange new student who wants to have nothing to do with either of them. But she captures Jake’s attention from their very first meeting. With his intense curiosity and his gift of extreme persistence, Jake gradually begins to unravel the mystery of her odd behavior and changes the course of the rest of the school year for everyone. As Jake gradually transforms the new girl’s attitude, Emily finally begins to see the magic that lives in him.