Give Me a Sign

May 15, 2023
A Deaf teen from the Chicago suburbs explores her identity at summer camp. Seventeen-year-old Lilah was born severely deaf. Though she's able to get by with hearing aids, FM units at school, and lip reading, she feels disconnected from the hearing world around her. Camp Gray Wolf, designed for deaf and blind kids, was the only place where she could use ASL and accept her deafness. But the rising high school senior hasn't been there since eighth grade. Feeling pulled back to the community, she applies for a counselor position. But camp isn't perfect either--her signing isn't fluent, and she feels like she doesn't totally fit in with the Deaf world. Readers will relate to and root for Lilah as she starts a summer romance with Isaac, a Deaf fellow junior counselor, and confronts her feelings about her own deafness. The author captures a common feeling for people who fall into the hard of hearing category: feeling like they are not hearing enough and yet not deaf enough. She also explores other Deaf experiences such as meeting condescending saviors and navigating scary interactions with the police. Secondary characters, including a Deaf family in which one member gets a cochlear implant and a child whose father belittles and all but forbids ASL, expose readers to experiences of deafness other than Lilah's. Lilah reads White; there is some racial diversity among the supporting characters. Readers will love this sincere Deaf coming-of-age story. (note on the text, author's note) (Fiction. 12-18)

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Starred review from June 5, 2023
Sortino celebrates Deaf culture and identity in this endearingly funny slow-burn rom-com debut. White-cued 17-year-old Lilah—who’s hard of hearing and uses hearing aids—is tired of struggling to communicate with her hearing friends and parents, and being forced to live with her school’s lackluster accommodations. Determined to brush up on her American Sign Language skills and reconnect with the Deaf community, Lilah takes a job as a junior counselor at Gray Wolf Camp, a Midwestern summer program for Deaf and blind children, which she hasn’t been to since eighth grade. Once there, she meets Deaf, Latinx-cued Isaac, 18, whose playfulness and patience make Lilah’s heart flutter. As Lilah navigates her initial anxieties surrounding camp drama, her new crush, and her reintegration into a Deaf community, she learns to embrace her identity. But when she realizes the camp is in dire financial straits, she fears that her new haven will soon cease to exist. Through Lilah’s frank and sincere first-person POV, Sortino highlights a variety of Deaf experiences, exploring the community’s pride and culture, as well as the trauma some Deaf individuals face in interactions with strangers and loved ones alike. An author’s note contextualizes the use of ASL in the book’s dialogue. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kari Sutherland, KT Literary.

June 1, 2023
Grades 7-10 Seventeen-year-old Lilah, who is partially deaf, applies to be a junior counselor at Gray Wolf, a camp for kids who are deaf and/or blind. She considers herself not "deaf enough" to feel at completely home in either the hearing world or the culture of the completely deaf, but she wants to improve her American Sign Language skills. Increasingly, too, she longs for the sense of belonging that she found as a camper at Gray Wolf. Though she sometimes struggles at camp, Lilah finds supportive friends and more, including a summer romance and a job offer to return next year. Written from Lilah's point of view, the first-person narrative is involving, particularly for romance fans. An intriguing aspect of the book is Sortino's sensitive portrayal of characters who are deaf in varying degrees and who manage communication in different ways. Scenes within the story show inconvenient and occasionally alarming problems that deaf people might encounter in the hearing world and how friends and relatives could help. A promising first novel for Sortino, who identifies as Deaf.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2023

Gr 7 Up-Although Lilah is excited about her job as a junior counselor at Gray Wolf, a summer camp for the Deaf and Blind, she is a little nervous. She attended the camp when she was younger and loved it, but she's worried about how rusty her ASL is because she doesn't use it with her hearing parents or her hearing school friends. With her hearing aids, Lilah can somewhat pass in the hearing world, hence she doesn't feel "deaf enough" at times. Happily, she meets Isaac, a fellow counselor who patiently helps her relearn ASL, in addition to providing her with the summer romance she has been longing for. Camp Gray Wolf is just as special as Lilah remembers; it is an inclusive community whose campers and counselors include Deaf, hard of hearing, Blind, and low vision individuals as well as two counselors without a disability. Of the dozen or so staff, two are Black, one is Latinx, and Lilah and Isaac are white. It's a summer of learning for Lilah-learning ASL, to take responsibility and care for others, as well as how to embrace her Deaf identity and advocate for herself. Mixed in with the summer romance and the minutiae of the camp world, Sortino addresses some more thorny issues, such as when hearing parents with Deaf children reject ASL, why (or why not) one would choose cochlear implant surgery, and the everyday challenges people in the Deaf community encounter when interacting with hearing people. VERDICT This debut will please readers looking for a sweet love story while also providing a nuanced and thoughtful exploration of some of the issues those in the Deaf community face.-Ragan O'Malley

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