A Blind Guide to Stinkville by Beth Vrabel

And Alice’s aptitude for getting people to reveal themselves helps the reader realize that being different is a strength rather than a weakness.Ī Blind Guide to Stinkville takes the common approach of using the struggles of the main character to sketch out the characters of a town where everyone is fighting their own battles. Alice’s story reminds us that we are strongest when we believe in ourselves. Perhaps the best lesson for young people in the book is one that Alice keeps telling herself: “Be your own advocate.” Previously, Alice’s albinism and near-blindness forced her to rely on others, but, in her new town, Alice uses her cane and sheer will-power to explore. Home is where the heart is, even if it smells like rotten eggs.

It is clear the author has a love for small towns and their quirks. These observations are given voice in an essay contest to showcase the town’s success stories, which Alice seizes as the perfect platform to ask questions about the town’s history and its inhabitants. Alice finds the beauty buried beneath the surface of Stinkville -like her brother’s crush on a local girl, or the fact that the owner of the diner and the mayor of the town are in love with one another, or just the deliciousness of a specially made PB&J milkshake at the diner. However, as Alice reveals the stories of the townspeople, Stinkville becomes a much less stinky place. It’s nothing like where she grew up in Seattle. Initially, Alice thinks her new hometown of Sinkville, aka “Stinkville,” is a horrible place dominated by the terrible smell emanating from the local paper-mill.

The book is not a page-turner plot-wise and there are no major catastrophes instead the novel peers beneath the superficial to reveal important lessons about what it means to be a member of small town community.ĭespite the fact that Alice has to use a magnifying glass to read a book a few inches from her face, she is the only person in the story who truly sees what is going on around her. The genius of Vrabel’s approach is that the reader meets the other characters through nuances of feelings and impressions rather than stark physical descriptions. Sky Pony Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing Inc., 288 pagesĪ Blind Guide to Stinkville is a story told through the fuzzy vision of 11-year-old Alice, whose albinism and near blindness give her the perspective to uncover hidden stories of the people in her new town.

A Blind Guide to Stinkville by Beth Vrabel