Ice Book

Seventeen-year-old Ice (yes, that's her name) is in trouble at school, not for talking, but for not talking. The teachers are concerned that she's falling into something called "elective mutism." She just won't talk when she doesn't want to talk.

It doesn't take too much of a parent-teacher conference to figure out what at least part of the problem is. Her mother, whose career was frustrated by early marriage and pregnancy, does all the talking for her and anyone else in the room.

But let Ice sing and the world stands still to listen. She learned about music from her father's collection of jazz records--Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, etc. She can imitate Carmen McRae's "Bye-Bye Blackbird" and Ella Fitzgerald's "Lullaby of Birdland."