The Sayzeh Song, Book Three

Eighth grade at a predominantly Black public school in Dayton, Ohio, 1983-84. The blind author finds a very special teacher, who is Black, and a younger female friend, who is White. The practices dictated by the author’s Orthodox Jewish faith still rule large parts of his daily life, and he frequently obsesses about the Holocaust. His growing love of popular music provides needed diversion and takes up more and more of his time at home. Then a traumatic five-hour skating party at a downtown roller rink changes his life and leads him to the inescapable conclusion that he needs mental counseling.

Throughout the book, the true and very moving story is recounted in astonishing detail.

In the author’s own words:
“I now find it shocking that I wasn’t sent for help much sooner. Eventually, as an adult, I came to the sad and ironic conclusion that there was a silver lining to my time at Skateland. Even during the event itself, I realized that as desperate as I felt at the time, my situation could not compare with that of most of my schoolmates. Sometimes we need to hit rock bottom in order to ascend higher.”