I Talk Like a River

by Scott, Jordan; Smith, Sydney

• ISBN13: 9780823460915
• ISBN10: 0823460916
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-05-06
• Publisher: Neal Porter Books

Summary

What if words got stuck in the back of your mouth whenever you tried to speak? What if they never came out the way you wanted them to?

Sometimes it takes a change of perspective to get the words flowing.

Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner
A New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year

I wake up each morning with the sounds of words all around me.

And I can't say them all . . .

When a boy who stutters feels isolated, alone, and incapable of communicating in the way he'd like, it takes a kindly father and a walk by the river to help him find his voice. Compassionate parents everywhere will instantly recognize a father's ability to reconnect a child with the world around him.

Poet Jordan Scott writes movingly in this powerful and ultimately uplifting book, based on his own experience, and masterfully illustrated by Sydney Smith, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international distinction given to author and illustrators of children's books. Now in paperback, I Talk Like a River is a book for any child who feels lost, lonely, or unable to fit in.

Finalist for the BC and Yukon Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize
A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book
An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book
ILA Primary Fiction Honoree
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Shelf Awareness, Bookpage, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Publishers Lunch, and more!
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A Bank Street Best Childrens Book of the Year!
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
A CBC Best Picture Book of the Year
A Kids' Book Choice Award Finalist

Author Biography

Jordan Scott is a poet whose work includes Silt, Blert, DECOMP, and Night & Ox. Blert, which explores the poetics of stuttering, is the subject of two National Film Board of Canada projects, Flub and Utter: a poetic memoir of the mouth and STUTTER. Scott was the recipient of the 2018 Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize for his contributions to Canadian poetry. I Talk Like a River is Scott's first book for children. He lives in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island with his wife and two sons.

Sydney Smith is an illustrator of picture books whose work includes Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson; The White Cat and the Monk by Jo Ellen Bogart; and Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz, which was awarded the 2018 Kate Greenaway Medal and the 2018 Children's Literature Award. He both wrote and illustrated Small in the City, which Kirkus Reviews called "Extraordinary, emotional, and beautifully rendered." in a starred review. School Library Journal said "The use of line, reflection, and perspective masterfully evoke a bustling gray city." in another starred review. Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes, a School Library Journal blog, said "Small in the City is one of my favorite books of 2019."  He is a recipient of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award, two Governor General's Awards for Illustrated Children's Books, and four New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year citations, among other accolades. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.