B is for BAYLEE by Kay M. Bates – Middle-Grade Fiction, Middle Grade Blindness Books, Middle-Grade Adventure Books

Kay M. Bates delivers an inspiring middle-grade reader focusing on a young girl who suffers a severe injury that takes her life in a new and surprising direction in B is for Baylee. Along the way, she faces opposition, ridicule, and challenges. Still, she discovers the importance of determination and the actual value of friendship and acceptance when life throws you an unexpected curve.

Twelve-year-old Baylee Harker plays first base in a Stoutland city league softball game when an errant ball strikes her. The unfortunate incident sets in motion a series of events that take her on a physical and emotional roller coaster ride of dealing with sudden vision loss and its life-changing repercussions. Between the hospital, emergency surgery, and subsequent visits with eye specialists who offer little hope for improvement, Baylee’s diagnosis: legally blind. Though she can see illumination and washed-out color with her right eye, she lacks visual acuity. The left eye offers fuzzy vision with black splotches across her visual field. Soon she’s wondering, “Will I be like this the rest of my life?”

At home, Baylee is a typical “tween,” but her blindness compounds frustrations. Bates presents loving, though sometimes over-protective parents and close-knit siblings who help Baylee adjust to the situation. Bates smartly delivers Baylee’s mix of emotions and allows readers to feel it all: angst, fear, and exhilaration. Baylee’s disappointed at the closing of a favorite taco eatery; she’s concerned about descending a staircase on her own, and her anger at the disastrous results in attempting to make mac & cheese drives the story forward. But it’s joining a family sledding excursion that revives her exhilaration for the outdoors.

Returning to school may be fun.

A return to school and the world-at-large soon has Baylee realizing the frailties of human nature. Comments from a hair-flipping, so-called friend Margaux like, “Poor thing” and “… just faking it,” or a tense but ultimately humorous encounter with a parking lot bully emphasize the lack of knowledge and often little respect towards physically challenged individuals. In counterpoint, encouraging comments from a teacher suggest that Baylee’s injury might lead to other opportunities. “Keep your chin up, stay tough,” prove well-meaning words with an advantageous edge. With the help of a compassionate braille instructor and classmate, a mentoring track coach, and newfound friends, Baylee learns to navigate both life’s literal and figurative hurdles as she works to regain the parts of her identity she lost along with her eyesight.

The story is heavy on conversational dialogue, which seems appropriately reflective of the subject matter. With limited vision, Baylee must adapt to a world where sound is now at the forefront of her life. Here a moment of sitting against an amplifier proves a stress reliever. She even turns her reliance on audio/verbal cues into a game by matching the voice of a person.

Bates drew on her own experience to write a story that focuses on the main character’s loss of sight. Bates herself once dealt with severe vision impairment due to rare complications occurring after eye surgery. She now has full vision.

While visually impaired individuals must face their unique journey, this book offers particular insight and perspective for those newly coping with such a sudden life change, as well as those around them. Triumphantly ”B” is for Baylee reflects not only the harsh realities of a blindness diagnosis, but it positively showcases the opportunity for hope and winning achievement.

”B” is for Baylee placed semi-finalist in the CIBA 2019 Gertrude Warner Awards for Middle-Grade Fiction.