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New children’s novel, Roxie in Color, poignantly centers sighted middle schooler coming of age in a blind family. A deeply personal and anticipated debut co-authored by former Parents Magazine editor and Director of Iowa Department for the Blind.Roxie wants to blend in at a new school, which is hard to do when your parents are blind, in this remarkable novel about friendship, misperceptions, and family—plus a dog’s view of the world.
Roxie loves her parents, but other people can’t seem to see past the fact that they’re blind—and they don’t really see Roxie, either. To them, she’s just “the girl with the blind parents.” So when her family moves to a new town and Roxie starts seventh grade at a new school, she’s determined to be known for the other parts of who she is: an artist, an animal lover, and the kind of person who bakes cookies for people she cares about for no special reason. But that means keeping her parents’ blindness a secret from the kids at school and definitely not telling anyone that she might inherit the eye condition that caused her mother’s vision loss—at least until they get to know her.
For a while, Roxie is happier than she’s ever been. But when her lies and omissions lead to a visit from Child Protective Services, will Roxie find the courage to be fully honest with her friends, her parents, and herself? This heartfelt depiction of a girl establishing her own identity, with some chapters told from the perspective of her mother’s loyal guide dog, is an authentic portrayal of the joys, challenges, and everyday ordinariness of being raised by parents who have a disability.
Stacy Cervenka is the director of the Iowa Department for the Blind and previously led the Blind Parents Group of the National Federation of the Blind. She divides her time between Des Moines and Lincoln, Nebraska, where she lives with her husband and two children. Just like Roxie’s family, Stacy and her husband, Greg, are blind, while their children, Leo and Josephine, are sighted.
“The blind community is a huge part of my life, and it was important to me that the book reflects that. In many ways, I think of my blindness a lot less in terms of the physicality or the logistics of it, and much more in terms of the community I’m a part of. I wanted readers to see that Roxie and Theo are not the only two kids in the world who have blind parents, that there is a whole close-knit blind community that their family belongs to. When blind friends have read early drafts, this is almost always the aspect they respond to most strongly. They appreciate that readers will see that not every child of blind parents thinks about it the same way that Roxie does and that Roxie’s seemingly unusual experience is more widely shared than the reader might have thought.”
Diane Debrovner is the former deputy editor of Parents Magazine and author of the article “What Blind Parents Want You to See,” which provided the spark for this novel. She now helps nonprofits share their stories to raise the funding they need. Diane lives in New York City with her family and a dog who loves watermelon.
“I started writing the book on my own and then realized I couldn’t tell the story by myself. I was thrilled when Stacy agreed to be my co-author. Roxie’s family wasn’t based on her family, but she brought their experience to life with more authentic details than I ever could. However, Roxie’s emotions and the challenges of middle school were all very familiar to me.”
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