Tag Archives: deaf children

Review: Stella’s Plea, by R A Giggie

Stella's Plea, by R A GiggieStella’s Plea, by R A Giggie (Amazon Digital Services, 2012)

A Canadian Forces wife whose husband is deployed overseas, Stella Brigg’s life wraps around their three-year-old daughter, Alexis.

One clear autumn day, the unthinkable happens. Alexis disappears from the local playground, with no witnesses.

Stella had only turned her back for a minute, but now she’s full of self-reproach—and full of blame for her friend, Joni, who suggested the park play date.

Alexis has no fear of strangers, which helped her kidnapper get away. At age two, a bout with meningitis left the little girl unable to speak or to hear. Alexis is used to strangers from her time in the hospital, and she and her family are still learning to communicate through sign language.

I’m a total wimp about reading about crimes against children, but author R. A. Giggie handles this story so well that I was never afraid to turn the page. It helps that we see Alexis with her captor, a young woman hired to provide a child for a black market adoption.

So many times in the story, the searchers’ paths cross—or just miss—the kidnapper’s as she moves Alexis from one location to another. Alone and desperate, Stella senses God whispering “trust Me.” But how can she trust the one who allowed her daughter to go deaf?

Kind citizens, Christian and non, reach out to Stella, but the only help she wants is to have her daughter home again. Stella’s Plea touches a parent’s worst nightmare, but gently, in a way that tugs the heart but won’t keep you awake all night worrying.

Author R. A. Giggie blogs at reneeanngiggie.com, and you can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

[Review copy from my personal library.]