Marylin Leinenbach and Anne Raymond are bring their book, "Tate and the Super Hear-o Cape" to schools and libraries in their home area. However, they have much bigger dreams. You see, this is a true story of a young boy, Tate, who was struggling with 2 hearing aids and still only able to hear 25% of the sound. His dad, Mark Siebert, also had poor hearing and received one of the early cochlear implants in 2001. When he saw his son struggling, he and his wife determined to get Tate a cochlear implant as well. Just over a year ago, Mark and his aunt Marylin started the book. They made a point to write this book in Tate's voice, true to life. Even the illustrations look just like Tate. After the surgery, it took a few weeks to find that Tate hears well with this new device and he began smiling from ear to ear.
The book was written to explain to Tate's classmates what a cochlear implant is, why it is needed and how challenging it can be to relate to deaf children because people don't realize the isolation that deafness causes or what that strange thing is attached to his head. Now, Tate and Marylin travel around schools and libraries reading the book together to packed auditoriums. The children really get into the story and cheer for Tate.
This book would be of value to schools, libraries, audiology offices, and non-profit organizations providing educational support for people of disabilities. Adding a video version of Tate and Marylin reading the book might make an even bigger contribution than reading the book alone. I'd love to see that happen.