Inspire Every Child

Inspirational News

Sending an inspirational message through books
Claudette Sutton
Family Café

"When you open your heart and your fun tumbles out, news of it travels a heavenly route…" The clear, sweet voice of Ross Soleil Palmer, age 11, lilts through Fun is a Feeling, a popular children's book by Chara M. Curtis. His narration was recorded in July for an audio-book by the New Mexico Regional Library for the Blind and the Physically Handicapped.

Recording the book, and another by the same author, would be a special accomplishment for any child, since the library's books are typically narrated by adult volunteers. Ross' accomplishment is even more spectacular since he has been functionally blind since birth, and only began to speak at age 4.

Ross's mom, Raya Soleil, gets books for him from the LBPH affiliate in Santa Fe. The library's collection includes "talking books," audio-books designed for machines with special playback and navigation features of use to the visually impaired. When Soleil discovered the library had a recording studio, she requested an interview for her son. That interview became his first recording session. With pages in front of him only for prompts, Ross recited two books with articulation and a storyteller's flair.

"The stories are about being in your heart and being all you are," Soleil said. "For a blind person to hear a little angel's voice about being who you are here to be - it's magical." Ross was born three months premature, at barely two pounds. Hemiplegic cerebral palsy left him with field vision of just three to four inches. Lacking diaphragm strength to make vocal sounds, he first communicated through sign language, and began developing a voice at age 4. Yet Soleil has been reading to Ross since his infancy, typically stories of angels and inspiration. She first realized Ross was memorizing books - "reading with his ears," as she says - when he was 3.

He now has about 100 books stored in his memory. The two recorded for the Library for the Blind are his first, but "certainly not his last," according to the library's newsletter.

"As a role model for kids who can't see, Ross is a spit-shine example of how kids compensate," Soleil said. Along with mobiles, stuffed animals and books, Ross' bedroom is stocked with equipment to help him learn what his fourth-grade classmates at Kearny Elementary School will learn this year. That equipment includes a "Victor Vibe" digital talking book players to play his schoolbooks aloud, and a print enlarger that magnifies text to a size he can see.

Although the process of "reading with his eyes" is considerably more arduous for Ross than memorization, it's the key to a lifelong relationship with books. "The first time he saw a word," Soleil said, "his whole body went into a big, excited shudder. You could cut the energy in the room."

The Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has a collection of more than 47,000 titles and 290,000 volumes, on a wide variety of subjects, in cassette, Braille, large-type and electronic form. Visit them in the New Mexico State Library, 1209 Camino Carlos Rey, Santa Fe (476-9700).

Contact Claudette Sutton at Claudette@sftumbleweeds.com.