Hurt Go Happy | 
 enlarge | Author: Ginny Rorby
Publisher: Starscape
Category: Book
List Price: $5.99
Buy New: $2.50
You Save: $3.49 (58%)
New (33) Used (11) from $2.39
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 17452
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1st
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0765353040
EAN: 9780765353047
ASIN: 0765353040
Publication Date: July 31, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new book, no marks
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Product Description
Thirteen-year-old Joey Willis is used to being left out of conversations. Though she’s been deaf since the age of six, Joey’s mother has never allowed her to learn sign language. She strains to read the lips of those around her, but often fails.
Everything changes when Joey meets Dr. Charles Mansell and his baby chimpanzee, Sukari. Her new friends use sign language to communicate, and Joey secretly begins to learn to sign. Spending time with Charlie and Sukari, Joey has never been happier. She even starts making friends at school for the first time. But as Joey’s world blooms with possibilities, Charlie’s and Sukari’s choices begin to narrow—until Sukari’s very survival is in doubt.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
HURT GO HAPPY July 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As an eighth-grade English teacher, I read young adult novels in hopes of finding a piece of writing that I can offer to my students -- one that they will enjoy, learn from, find easily, and connect to whatever else I am teaching at the time. I will admit that I don't read as many books as I should, but I do a lot of research on the prospective books in advance by reading reviews from others (thanks, Amazon!), so I can use my limited reading time wisely.
HURT GO HAPPY came to me as one of Florida's 2008-2009 Sunshine State recommended texts for students in grades 6 through 8. Researching these fifteen titles to find the couple of diamonds among them requires the use of feedback from Amazon reviewers, and this book came with glowing recommendations.
I was worried by the description that this book would be one of those formulaic, teen adventures, in this case with a deaf girl trying to save a chimpanzee -- NOT what I would call a genre I was giving much hope to. Luckily, these other reviews dispelled that dread, giving me hope that there was something more to this interestingly titled piece.
As an English and Drama teacher, I have to admit that my favorite part of what I teach is the subject of Theme (not as in "essay," or "recurring motif," but "the lessons, morals and wisdom a story has to offer"). I embrace books that come to their themes honestly, creatively and passionately. The greatest works offer themes that sink so deep into our minds, hearts and souls that we cannot remove these lessons from ourselves, no matter how hard we try. You don't have to read TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD more than once to feel that the power of its lessons will NEVER leave you; you only have to think about this type of book years afterward, and you can still feel the impression it has left on you without even trying. These are books we love and consider our favorites.
I didn't think that this book would be anywhere nearly as successful as it turns out to be. Its multiple themes (primary and secondary) are all, oxymoronically, both bold and subtle. However, it is the major theme of HURT GO HAPPY that stays and drives the entire work: We must live up to our responsibilities -- to each other, to our world, to ourselves. This theme shows up in HURT GO HAPPY in each of the key relationships in the story, as well as in some of the minor ones. Some characters have lived up to their responsibilities and others have not. A strong writer will show you both sides of the coin, as it were. Author Ginny Rorby has wisely allowed us to see how our actions (and inactions) affect us and others, sometimes in an intensely painful way (both emotionally and physically). Great authors tend to not shy away from the ugly side of life, and Rorby has written a book that has a tremendous number of layers to it (both beautiful and ugly).
Deeply, deeply felt, HURT GO HAPPY is powerful, and surprised me greatly. The relationship with Joey and her mother seems very one-dimensional at first, but drives the theme in a devastatingly real way as it proves to be very much three-dimensional. Joey's mother Ruth spends her life avoiding her past and, apparently, the future, as well. Her denial for Joey to live in the world in which Joey actually exists (deaf, friendless, and wanting) is painful for us, and when Joey tries to break out of this awful reality, Ruth insists that that cannot be. We begin to see Ruth as selfish, and she is, but as Ginny Rorby develops this magnificent tale of a young girl finding that her responsibilities are to be the driving force of her life, we get to see Ruth as a hurt, wounded creature who has failed in her own life. A small, but beautifully poignant moment in the middle of the book started me on the path to getting excited about HURT GO HAPPY. The rest of the book only heightened that initial excitement.
Joey is a magnificent protagonist, one of my favorites of the past few years, who has to fight to be heard (yeah, I guess that pun is intended). Her observations and reactions to life are pieces of gold for teachers like me. Metaphorically speaking, this is a treasure trove as well -- a trove of metaphors, that is. Rorby has developed wonderfully subtle metaphors as well as bold metaphors that should shake a student's understanding of what finely crafted writing is -- so much so that any student should be able to truly understand and appreciate that the best writing requires great thought, constant planning and driving passion.
Perhaps I fell in love with this book when the meaning of the odd title revealed itself late in the text. It made wonderful, heartfelt sense on a very basic level, but it really sank into that part deep within my heart, soul and mind when I understood that it was the PERFECT title because, metaphorically, it dealt not only with Sukari the chimpanzee, but far more importantly, it spoke of Joey and Ruth and of their failures of the past. At that point, this became the book I was looking for. I can't imagine that any other book I read in the next year will be able to compare.
You MUST read this book.
(And as a side-note, I will be using this book as a companion piece to THE MIRACLE WORKER -- not only because of the subject of deafness, but because I teach THE MIRACLE WORKER to explore metaphor and deeper meanings. I can't wait!)
Just finished reading this to two 5th grade classes June 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am an elementary school librarian and have been reading this exceptional book to two fifth-grade classes over the course of about 6 weeks.
Every week they came into the library, eager to continue the story again. First, we'd review what happened the week before, then I would read for about 30 minutes. When we came upon any new ASL words, we would look them up and learn them together. When I finally had to stop reading after the 30 minutes was up, I'd get "Don't stop" groans and then applause!!!
This is such a great read-aloud book! We had some really insightful discussions and we learned SO much! We laughed and we cried (Oh, boy, it's hard to read when you're crying!). None of us will ever forget Sukari and Joey. There are now 60 young people (and three "old" ones!) that will never look at a chimp or any other primate the same again.
Ms. Rorby, THANK YOU for this book! Can't wait to get "Dolphin Sky!"
Powerful, Emotional, Amazing June 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Thirteen year old Joanne "Joey" Willis has been deaf since the age of six. Her mother Ruth wants her to function in the hearing world by reading lips and adapting to school life with special sound monitors, but despite Ruth's efforts, Joey struggles to fit in and feels isolated from her classmates as well as her family.
Things change when Joey meets Dr. Charles Mansell (Charlie) and his baby chimpanzee Sukari who both speak American Sign Language. Charlie begins to teach Joey ASL, opening up a whole new world of communication for her - against her mother's wishes. Sukari and Joey form a unique bond but when Charlie's situation changes, it is up to Joey to speak up for Sukari and protect the life of her new found friend.
Hurt Go Happy is a captivating and believable novel, with details based on true events. The characters are richly drawn and ready to pull readers in from the very first chapter. Ginny Rorby expertly describes problems involving the culture clash between deaf and hearing people and also weaves several other serious issues into her story, including: animal rights, teen friendships, fitting in at school, family conflicts, homelessness, and abuse. Highly emotional and overwhelmingly powerful, Hurt Go Happy is an amazingly well written book.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too February 26, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I had actually never heard of this title until I stumbled across it on the New York Public Library's "Books for the Teen Age" list for 2007. How I had missed it is a mystery, one that I can only chalk up to a lack of promotional advertising. Which is a horrible shame, because this book is one of the best I've read in years. If you haven't read it, you should. If you've never heard of it, don't worry, because you'll never forget it once you've read it.
I didn't have a lot of preconceived ideas going into the story. From the book jacket, I knew that HURT GO HAPPY was about a girl named Joey who was deaf, and who lived with a mother who forbid her to learn ASL, or American Sign Language. I knew that she met a chimpanzee named Sukari, who had been raised almost like a child by a man named Charlie, who had taught her ASL. What I didn't know was that this is the most emotional story I've ever read. It may have been a mistake to read this book at work (Don't worry, I'm allowed!), because I broke down in tears more times than I can count while reading it.
It's true that Joey is deaf. She wasn't born that way, but suffered from a childhood incident that isn't revealed until close to the end of the book. The reader knows that it must have been something bad, and it probably has something to do with why her mother, Ruth, doesn't want her learning to sign. That abhorrent, inane hatred of sign language is an attribute of Ruth's that had me disliking her from the first, and even though, over time, her stance ultimately changes, I never came to fully enjoy her as a character. That being said, though, she is one of the strongest characters of the story, and even though I fault her for many mistakes she made throughout HURT GO HAPPY, you can always understand, on some level, how she came to make them.
When Joey meets Charlie, an older doctor who lives close to their home in California, she is immediately taken with him. Not only does he know sign language, but he truly knows her -- and for a girl like Joey, cut off from so many people at home and at school by her inability to communicate easily, this is a treasure. When she meets Sukari, the chimp who is more like a child, she's smitten.
Over the course of months, Joey, Charlie, and Sukari bond as if they were their own tightly knit family, and in a way they are. There are obstacles to overcome, as always, that involve Joey's family, Charlie's health, and Sukari's relationship with them all. HURT GO HAPPY spans the course of years, and during that time we see a myriad of changes, from Joey learning to sign and attending a school for the deaf, from Charlie suffering from his bad heart, and from Sukari being taken from the only home she's ever known to ultimately end up in a research lab.
This isn't an easy story to read, but it's so heartfelt and true that you won't want to stop reading it. Although it's hard to say whether or not HURT GO HAPPY has a happy ending, it has one that is so true to life that you'll understand it's the only way it could have ended. The author makes it clear that this is a story based on true events, and that fact alone will have you thinking of the world in new ways. This book isn't just about being deaf, nor is it strictly about using animals for testing. It's about the choices we make, the burdens we carry, and the love that gets us through it all.
There is so much more I could tell you about this book. I could tell you that I ordered a copy of the AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE CONCISE DICTIONARY so that my daughter and I could learn more signs. I could tell you that I ordered books about other chimps who have lived their lives using ASL. I could mention that, although I had previously never thought much about testing on animals, I now can't stop thinking about it. I could also tell you that, genetically, chimpanzees share over 98% of the same DNA as humans. In the end, though, I'll just say that HURT GO HAPPY is, simply stated, amazing. Read it. You'll be glad you did. I promise.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
Enchanting February 12, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
"I'm not going to let anyone take her from the only home she knows."
Joey is a young girl who is legally deaf, but doesn't know sign language because of her mother's objections. Then, she meets Charlie and Sukari, an older man and a sign language speaking chimpanzee who change her life. She begins to learn sign language behind her mother's back. Then, something tragic happens and immediate responsibility of Sukari is put on Joey.
Personally I loved the enchanting story of Hurt Go Happy. It brought tears, laughs, and smiles that only an amazing book can bring. I think it contains a strong message about how anything you do, or anyone you meet can come with a life changing experience. I believe that this book best relates to teenage girls, or young adults with disabilities. Also, anyone that loves a "not so classic'' book about human and animal relationships.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that is interested in reading. Hurt Go Happy will take you on an adventure of ups, downs, and even some corkscrews. I personally have read many books this past year and Hurt Go Happy has to be one of the best. Read it and weep, smile, and laugh....
-Rachel Sukenik
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