I Talk Like A River

“I wake up in the morning with these word-sounds stuck in my mouth. I stay quiet as a stone.” Jordan Scott

I Talk Like A River is more than a book, it’s a poem and a work of art. This beautiful book written by poet, Jordan Scott and illustrated by Sydney Smith is a true story about a young boy who struggles with his stuttering speech. The story, written in poem, describes how he struggles when asked to speak in front of his class. When he speaks, the words get “stuck” and “his mouth isn’t working.” His father picks him up from school and takes him to his sanctuary, the river. As the boy and his father walk along the river, the boy’s father says, “See how that water moves? That’s how you speak.”

Jordan Scott describes his words like a river…”bubbling,whirling, churning and crashing”. I have never read a book that captures the emotion of a speech disorder like Jordan Scott did when writing this book, I Talk Like A River.

I Talk Like A River is not only important for any child who stutters but for anyone who struggles and feels like they are alone in their journey. At the end of the book, Jordan Scott includes a section titled, How I Speak which describes Jordan’s journey with stuttering and how his father helped him through a difficult time in his life. Stuttering isn’t just a speech disorder. It affects people emotionally and with the support of his father, Jordan Scott was able to embrace his stuttering and “talk like a river.”