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beanie_reads 's review for:
Give Me a Sign
by Anna Sortino
This book will be very important to a lot of people, I can just tell. Perhaps not me, but someone. Lilah is a very useful middle character as someone who is raised to be hearing-passing but craves more of Deaf culture, allowing us to learn with her as she goes back to Camp Greywolf. Give Me a Sign provides a lot of insight into said Deaf culture, one that many readers would never see because, as the author very accurately points out in her author's note, many times deaf characters are regulated to side characters that don't see much screen time or are there to be pitied. Things may be better now, but you still don't get many stories like this, where you are fully immersed and get to see the full experience of the life and joys of Deaf people. They are not victims or people who need fixed, and this books puts a huge emphasis on that.
Isaac, our love interest, is also fun in the sense that he's just adorable. There's no brooding bad boy here. Just a cute little dork who is figuring out how to properly convey to the girl he's crushing on that he likes her. And how better to do that than to offer her fruit roll ups??? He's just such a real dude, ya know? I think that's my favorite part of the cast. They may all be a bit basic, but at the end of the day, they all feel real.
First person point of view was also used amazingly in this book, allowing us readers to only know what Lilah did. When she is hard of hearing and has limited sign knowledge, this only allows her to know some of what is said and signed, and the author only let us know what she knew. It was actually really fun and let us, to an extent, experience the limited input that is provided when you're forced to rely on hearing when you have hearing loss and the society refuses to encourage sign language.
However, the book had some issues. Although its messages were good, its delivery wasn't the best. More often than not, it broke narrative to educate/talk at the readers, and it felt like it'd be better breaking up some of the messages in multiple books perhaps to organically express the messages maybe? Instead they were blatantly spoken at the reader, which gave the preachy feel and runs the risk of pushing people off. Also, some of the drama was realllly forced.
Despite these flaws, though, it was a fun read, and it seemed to come from a good place rather than to force a message. Something I'd definitely recommend, especially for its intended age range, even if I wished it'd been executed better.
Isaac, our love interest, is also fun in the sense that he's just adorable. There's no brooding bad boy here. Just a cute little dork who is figuring out how to properly convey to the girl he's crushing on that he likes her. And how better to do that than to offer her fruit roll ups??? He's just such a real dude, ya know? I think that's my favorite part of the cast. They may all be a bit basic, but at the end of the day, they all feel real.
First person point of view was also used amazingly in this book, allowing us readers to only know what Lilah did. When she is hard of hearing and has limited sign knowledge, this only allows her to know some of what is said and signed, and the author only let us know what she knew. It was actually really fun and let us, to an extent, experience the limited input that is provided when you're forced to rely on hearing when you have hearing loss and the society refuses to encourage sign language.
However, the book had some issues. Although its messages were good, its delivery wasn't the best. More often than not, it broke narrative to educate/talk at the readers, and it felt like it'd be better breaking up some of the messages in multiple books perhaps to organically express the messages maybe? Instead they were blatantly spoken at the reader, which gave the preachy feel and runs the risk of pushing people off. Also, some of the drama was realllly forced.
Despite these flaws, though, it was a fun read, and it seemed to come from a good place rather than to force a message. Something I'd definitely recommend, especially for its intended age range, even if I wished it'd been executed better.