Joyce Dunbar’s The Boy in the Jam Jar is a gentle, honest story for 6 year olds about a boy whose world has suddenly gone quiet.<\/p>\n
Dylan wakes from a strange dream. He was stuck inside a jam jar, shouting at his mum, and not a sound came out. Then he wakes up and the silence is still there. The tap runs without a splash. The toilet flushes with no noise at all.<\/p>\n
Dylan is losing his hearing. It turns out he’s been lip-reading for ages without anyone noticing (he’s a dreamy boy, so everyone just thought he wasn’t listening). Now there are hospital tests, strange new words like audiogram, and a pair of hearing aids he really doesn’t want.<\/p>\n
Being special is the last thing he’s after, he tells his mum. He’d much rather be like everyone else.<\/p>\n
Back at school his friends shout into his face or talk to him like robots. Some stop bothering to repeat things. It’s a very real look at how lonely it can feel when nobody quite knows how to help, and Dylan’s grumpiness makes complete sense.<\/p>\n
There are lovely moments too. In art he draws a planet called Otherwhere, where there’s no air, so there’s no sound and nobody needs to hear. And in a guessing game in class it turns out he’s brilliant at reading faces. Who knew?<\/p>\n
Then there’s Pluto, his soppy dog, who bounds in every morning whatever kind of day Dylan’s having. When things go wrong at a very windy funfair, Pluto’s the one to watch!<\/p>\n
Any child who’s ever felt left out of the group will understand Dylan straight away. It’s also a nice way in if your family is getting used to hearing aids of its own.<\/p>\n
If they’d like another deaf hero with a dog at the heart of the story, try Lizzie and Lucky. Lizzie and her whole family are deaf, and she’s busy writing a very long list of reasons why she should be allowed a dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joyce Dunbar’s The Boy in the Jam Jar is a gentle, honest story for 6 year olds about a boy whose world has suddenly gone quiet. Dylan wakes from a strange dream. He was stuck inside a jam jar, shouting at his mum, and not a sound came out. Then he wakes up and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13073,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7967,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Lizzie and Lucky","lr_seo_hook":"A boy dreams he's trapped in a jam jar, then wakes to a world with no sound."},"book_tag":[25],"age_group":[31],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[504],"class_list":["post-8872","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-friendship-books","age_group-books-for-6-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-joyce-dunbar"],"yoast_title":"The Boy in the Jam Jar by Joyce Dunbar | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A boy dreams he's trapped in a jam jar, then wakes to a world with no sound. For ages 6+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n