For the hearing world, talking is the end-all-be-all. But do we really need to talk to communicate? A Quiet Kind of Thunder is a young adult story about Steffi, who is selectively mute, who falls in love with Rhys, a Deaf student at her school. It’s a coming-of-age tale about communication and how we all communicate in different ways. Maybe there is more to life than talk!
Read MoreA story of sibling rivalry, Deaf culture, sign language, and relationships between Deaf and hearing people, Strong Deaf is an emotionally rich children’s/middle grade book that doesn’t shy away from the precariousness of communication— the tension inherent to being understood.
Read MoreMark Drolsbaugh is a Deaf writer and an educator at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. I chose to read Anything But Silent— a collection of his articles about deafness. He shares both insightful and funny stories about karate as a confidence-building tool for Deaf kids, being “on the fence” as a Hard-of-Hearing person, life as a Super Phony, as he calls himself, (finding ways to pass as hearing around hearing folks), misunderstandings about ASL, cochlear implants, and much more.
Read MoreWritten by a professional sign language interpreter, Song for a Whale is both a flamboyant tale of childhood and a learned tribute to sound. Ultimately, Song for a Whale is a story about being heard, about having a voice, and about sound’s relationship to communication. All of these topics are deeply embedded in Deaf culture.
Read MoreDeaf Culture, in a sense, is its own character in Feathers.
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