Twelve-year-old Roxie is at a new school for 7th grade. She is a gifted artist and lives with her blind parents, guide dog, Nash, and a younger brother. She wants to keep her parents’ blindness a secret. Revealing it at her old school caused embarrassment.

The story is a realistic look at middle school that many readers will see in themselves. Trying to make friends or finding that available spot to sit at lunch time can be a huge challenge.

But what sets this apart is the understanding readers get about dealing with a disability. It’s possible Roxie inherited her own future vision problems from her mother’s eye condition- retinitis pigmentosa. The wonderful end result is that the problem will shape the person you become.

Along the way Roxie makes many mistakes including numerous lies, endangering her little brother, and using a credit card without permission. Her actions even cause Child Protective Services to visit the home.

There are also a few chapters narrated by Nash the dog. This loyal little friend gives a positive look at a loving family with an emotional viewpoint that resonates with kindness and understanding. Nash could even branch out and have his own book some day!

ROXIE IN COLOR is a bit long for a middle grade contemporary at 336 pages, but is also one that you will be glad to have spent time with Roxie and her challenges of growing up. A rare look at a sighted child with blind parents. A book that should be in every school and home library.

BOOK BIRTHDAY: June 2, 2026

FIVE MORE THINGS TO LIKE ABOUT: ROXIE IN COLOR by Diane Debrovner and Stacy Cervenka

1. Memorable character arcs aren’t easy to develop, but Roxie’s growth throughout were a highlight. I loved how she saw her future in a much different way with the help of expressing herself artistically.
2. The honest look at middle school friendships.
3. The book goes for even more authenticity with the use of low vision font for the text that should actually help all readers whether vision impaired or not.
4. The amount of learning readers get about the technologies and adaptation for those who are blind.
5. Heartwarming is an often overused term, but by book’s end this story sure earns that label.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Stacy Cervenka is the director of the Iowa Department for the Blind and previously led the Blind Parents Group of the National Federation of the Blind. She divides her time between Des Moines and Lincoln, Nebraska, where she lives with her husband and two children. Just like Roxie’s family, Stacy and her husband, Greg, are blind, while their children, Leo and Josephine, are sighted.

“The blind community is a huge part of my life, and it was important to me that the book reflects that. In many ways, I think of my blindness a lot less in terms of the physicality or the logistics of it, and much more in terms of the community I’m a part of. I wanted readers to see that Roxie and Theo are not the only two kids in the world who have blind parents, that there is a whole close-knit blind community that their family belongs to. When blind friends have read early drafts, this is almost always the aspect they respond to most strongly. They appreciate that readers will see that not every child of blind parents thinks about it the same way that Roxie does and that Roxie’s seemingly unusual experience is more widely shared than the reader might have thought.” (https://stacycervenka.com/)

Diane Debrovner is the former deputy editor of Parents magazine and author of the article “What Blind Parents Want You to See,” which provided the spark for this novel. She now helps nonprofits share their stories to raise the funding they need. Diane lives in New York City with her family and a dog who loves watermelon.

“I started writing the book on my own and then realized I couldn’t tell the story by myself. I was thrilled when Stacy agreed to be my co-author. Roxie’s family wasn’t based on her family, but she brought their experience to life with more authentic details than I ever could. However, Roxie’s emotions and the challenges of middle school were all very familiar to me.” (https://www.dianedebrovner.com/)

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