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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
As someone who grew up living at a summer camp, this book perfectly filled the hole that moving away left in my heart. I could not put it down! The incorporation of ASL flowed so naturally throughout the book and was something I'd never seen before. It made me so invested in Lilah's character as she starts out the book not very confident in her signing, or even her identity as a Deaf person, and I was rooting for her the whole way through. She faced a lot of challenges along the way, and I think that her journey is important to learn more about the Deaf community, but ultimately can speak to anyone who has ever questioned whether they belong.
As I started off this review, anything involving summer camp draws me in and the setting that the author created here was magical. It really took me back and I loved the bond that the counselors had with each other. They worked hard to find common ground with each other and were intentional about having hard conversations which led to greater understanding. A few even became more than friends, and it was so wholesome to watch them overcome barriers and forge such a sweet relationship. Give Me a Sign provides a well-thought out and nuanced picture of Deaf culture which will left me feeling challenged and inspired. This may well be the best contemporary I have ever read! Happy Reading :)
As I started off this review, anything involving summer camp draws me in and the setting that the author created here was magical. It really took me back and I loved the bond that the counselors had with each other. They worked hard to find common ground with each other and were intentional about having hard conversations which led to greater understanding. A few even became more than friends, and it was so wholesome to watch them overcome barriers and forge such a sweet relationship. Give Me a Sign provides a well-thought out and nuanced picture of Deaf culture which will left me feeling challenged and inspired. This may well be the best contemporary I have ever read! Happy Reading :)
challenging
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love this book! I'm so impressed and it speaks volumes to what it like being deaf person in both hearing and deaf world, trying to figure out the identity and struggles through languages barrier. I'm saying this as deaf person growing up in hearing family.
This book was a really cute read. I read it to complete a prompt for a reading challenge, and I'd read more of this author's books in the future!
challenging
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Lilah was born to hearing parents, but her and her brother have profound hearing loss. Lilah passes for hearing and has spent tons of time in speech therapy, but is not hearing. She had attended a Deaf camp when she was younger and wants to go back to learn more ASL and more about the Deaf culture.
When she gets there, as a junior counsellor, she finds her ASL lacking and feels she doesn't fit in fully with the Deaf culture either. She wonders if she is "Deaf enough" to take on an identity of a Deaf person. At the camp she meets people from various Deaf communities. One girl's entire family are Deaf going back generations, but after a scary incident at the hospital, decided to get a cochlear implant against her family's wishes. Lilah learns that some of them have Deaf ID cards to prove they are in fact Deaf.
Lilah find she has feelings for one of the counselors, Isaac. There are a number of times that there are crossed signals between them and there is a communication barrier.
The novel does well to highlight the vastness of the Deaf community and the challenges they face in the hearing world. Great story for anyone living with a difference or straddling different identity groups. Great for Middle School and up.
When she gets there, as a junior counsellor, she finds her ASL lacking and feels she doesn't fit in fully with the Deaf culture either. She wonders if she is "Deaf enough" to take on an identity of a Deaf person. At the camp she meets people from various Deaf communities. One girl's entire family are Deaf going back generations, but after a scary incident at the hospital, decided to get a cochlear implant against her family's wishes. Lilah learns that some of them have Deaf ID cards to prove they are in fact Deaf.
Lilah find she has feelings for one of the counselors, Isaac. There are a number of times that there are crossed signals between them and there is a communication barrier.
The novel does well to highlight the vastness of the Deaf community and the challenges they face in the hearing world. Great story for anyone living with a difference or straddling different identity groups. Great for Middle School and up.
As a student of ASL, I absolutely loved this book. As a Hearie, I can also recognize that sometimes (often) we are the problem.
———-
Lilah is HOH (Hard of Hearing) due to a congenial condition that causes progressive hearing loss. She has hearing aids and reads lips and has a little bit of ASL vocab.
Camp Gray Wolf is a summer camp for the Deaf, HOH, and visually impaired where they can go and be among friends from across the country, and just be a kid in an environment that’s specifically built for and caters to them.
Lilah has a unique position being that she has hearing aids but also can’t hear perfectly. Throughout the course of her summer as a junior counselor, she learns to love both sides of her — her Deafness doesn’t invalidate her hearing abilities, and he use of hearing aids doesn’t make her any less Deaf.
——————
Also. I loved when Lilah and Natasha put Mackenzie in her place about “pretending to be Deaf in public” and claiming that she is an ASL interpreter (when she’s actually a student).
——————————-
Big thanks to PenguinTeen for the ARC!
———-
Lilah is HOH (Hard of Hearing) due to a congenial condition that causes progressive hearing loss. She has hearing aids and reads lips and has a little bit of ASL vocab.
Camp Gray Wolf is a summer camp for the Deaf, HOH, and visually impaired where they can go and be among friends from across the country, and just be a kid in an environment that’s specifically built for and caters to them.
Lilah has a unique position being that she has hearing aids but also can’t hear perfectly. Throughout the course of her summer as a junior counselor, she learns to love both sides of her — her Deafness doesn’t invalidate her hearing abilities, and he use of hearing aids doesn’t make her any less Deaf.
——————
Also. I loved when Lilah and Natasha put Mackenzie in her place about “pretending to be Deaf in public” and claiming that she is an ASL interpreter (when she’s actually a student).
——————————-
Big thanks to PenguinTeen for the ARC!
This was my first vacation read! I thought the story was so sweet and I really enjoyed learning more about deaf culture. Lilah is such a fun character and I enjoyed reading from her perspective (:
This was a really cute book, perfect for a fun summer read. I loved all the characters and the complexity of emotions felt by everyone.
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
emotional
hopeful
informative
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
4.5 stars rounded up for this Deaf summer camp YA romance!
Lilah is hard of hearing and struggles with feeling not quite "deaf enough" to be proudly a part of the Deaf community and not hearing enough to be like her fully hearing peers. She struggles to advocate for herself at school and at home where her hearing parents have never learned or taught her ASL. On a bit of a whim, she decides to apply to be a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind she attended as a kid. Once there, she gains confidence, learns more ASL, and finds romance with another counselor.
This was a really sweet and well-done story. The romance between Lilah and Isaac felt realistic and adorable. (It was a little insta-lovey but also, that is legitimately how summer camp romances are haha) The cast of other counselors was diverse and showed a range of disabled experiences without flattening the characters to just their disability, race, or experience. I really liked Bobby and Simone's characters. The summer camp setting was super realistic and it made me nostalgic for my summers working at camp, which is wild lol. The author did a really good job weaving in a variety of positive and negative disabled experiences and commenting on them without it feeling preachy or textbook-y or like the audience needed things spelled out. Her experiences clearly shaped this story and it really made it shine in all the little details!
My only critiques are that I wish Lilah had a little more personality or interests (we know her favorite color is purple but what does she like to do in her free time?). And while I loved the side characters it did sometimes feel like they popped in and out of the story whenever it was convenient for Lilah which made them feel a little less independent. And there is a big plot point near the end that had a bit too tidy of a resolution. But I don't think these are things teens who read this would care about or notice.
The audiobook was great and I love how it depicted Lilah's deafness as she would hear only bits or pieces of what was spoken by other characters. I think this book would be an engaging, romantic read for a non-deaf teen (and a great way for them to learn about the Deaf community along the way) and I think disabled readers would love to see (and hopefully see themselves in) a huge cast of Deaf and blind characters having fun and falling in love over the course of a summer. I would also feel confident handing this to a younger teen reader because it's pretty clean!
Lilah is hard of hearing and struggles with feeling not quite "deaf enough" to be proudly a part of the Deaf community and not hearing enough to be like her fully hearing peers. She struggles to advocate for herself at school and at home where her hearing parents have never learned or taught her ASL. On a bit of a whim, she decides to apply to be a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind she attended as a kid. Once there, she gains confidence, learns more ASL, and finds romance with another counselor.
This was a really sweet and well-done story. The romance between Lilah and Isaac felt realistic and adorable. (It was a little insta-lovey but also, that is legitimately how summer camp romances are haha) The cast of other counselors was diverse and showed a range of disabled experiences without flattening the characters to just their disability, race, or experience. I really liked Bobby and Simone's characters. The summer camp setting was super realistic and it made me nostalgic for my summers working at camp, which is wild lol. The author did a really good job weaving in a variety of positive and negative disabled experiences and commenting on them without it feeling preachy or textbook-y or like the audience needed things spelled out. Her experiences clearly shaped this story and it really made it shine in all the little details!
My only critiques are that I wish Lilah had a little more personality or interests (we know her favorite color is purple but what does she like to do in her free time?). And while I loved the side characters it did sometimes feel like they popped in and out of the story whenever it was convenient for Lilah which made them feel a little less independent. And there is a big plot point near the end that had a bit too tidy of a resolution. But I don't think these are things teens who read this would care about or notice.
The audiobook was great and I love how it depicted Lilah's deafness as she would hear only bits or pieces of what was spoken by other characters. I think this book would be an engaging, romantic read for a non-deaf teen (and a great way for them to learn about the Deaf community along the way) and I think disabled readers would love to see (and hopefully see themselves in) a huge cast of Deaf and blind characters having fun and falling in love over the course of a summer. I would also feel confident handing this to a younger teen reader because it's pretty clean!