Ann Clare LeZotte presents Deer Run Home in short free verse chapters written in the voice of Effie, a Deaf girl in the current-day United States. Effie’s stepfather is sexually abusive, her mother is in denial, and her father is neglectful. School too is fraught: Effie is repeating fifth grade due to setbacks exacerbated by remote instruction during the COVID pandemic. At both school and home, Effie’s opportunities for communicating in American Sign Language—the language in which she’s at home—are devastatingly limited. Meanwhile, she witnesses the expansion of suburban sprawl and the displacement of the local deer population. Things begin to change when Effie forges a friendship with Cait (who has cerebral palsy), her English teacher encourages her to write poetry, and her at-school interpreter suspects that Effie’s domestic situation is terribly wrong. 

Effie’s story may seem a world away from Greek mythology, but the first and last poems of Deer Run Home focus on Iphigenia, the daughter whom Agamemnon decides to sacrifice so that the Greek forces can sail to Troy and whom Artemis rescues at the last minute by substituting a deer for the maiden. LeZotte uses this myth as a springboard rather than a strict template for Effie’s narrative. Neither of Effie’s dubious father-figures has the social status of an Agamemnon, but both subordinate Effie to their own desires and inclinations. Effie’s small band of supporters is more helpful than the chorus in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis. And ultimately a deer needn’t die so that Effie might live. There is no superhuman intervention in Effie’s story: humans bear the weight of making life better or worse for one another and for the creatures around them. 

The language of Effie’s poems may seem simple, but there is an intensity in her words and predicament that can make Deer Run Home an emotionally challenging read. While LeZotte is not gratuitously graphic, she does not shy away from showing the traumatic toll of sexual abuse, parental neglect, and social isolation. The publisher suggests an audience age-range of 10-14, but older readers, including adult ones, may find much to treasure in this book with its emphasis on claiming one’s voice and listening to others’—whether the words used are spoken, written, typed, or signed, in poetry or prose. –Rebecca Resinski