Give Me a Sign is a book about a teenager with hearing loss working as a junior counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind. Over the summer she learns ASL and discovers where she fits in the Deaf community.

This was a quick and easy read. I loved that nearly every character has hearing or vision loss, which isn't seen much in any form of media. It's nice that the author included different people living their deafness in different ways (no hearing, hearing aids, cochlear implants).

I look forward to reading more from Anna Sortino in the future.

CWs: physical assault, deaf discrimination, ableism, tornado (not seen)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Premise: Lilah, hard of hearing 17-year-old, goes to Gray Wolf Camp, a place that holds such beautiful memories for her, to train as a junior camp counselor. Lilah grew up attending this summer camp and feeling included and as if she belonged and now she wants to provide that same experience for younger campers. She is not fluent in American Sign Language yet so is also using this as a chance to fully immerse herself in the language so she can improve. This is absolutely a slice-of-life teen fiction story with a little coming-of-age, a little romance and a lot of generous lived experience of deaf/blind/disabled folks.

What stood out to me front-and-center were the friendships and connections that formed over the summer, especially between Lilah and:
-Natasha, who starts off as sort of a hard ass on Lilah for not fully knowing ASL
-Mackenzie, who is not disabled but has a huge social media following for showing off her ASL skills
-Isaac, her love interest, who graciously and patiently helps Lilah as she stumbles with ASL
-Phoebe, a teenage low-vision camper who may be interested in training as a junior counselor next year
-Ethan & Simone, her sort-of mentors at camp & senior camp counselors
-Oliver, a British lifeguard who rightly so makes fun of Americans lol
-Blake, one of Lilah's younger campers who has a cochlear implant & has never learned ASL

This book has a fantastic cast of characters, and even all of the ones that didn't particularly get too close to interact TOO much with Lilah were so much fun!

I cringed so hard at some of the ableist comments that others made to Lilah and her friends, and it reaffirmed the need to make our world more accessible in all aspects. I loved the author's note at the very end, and I hope to see (And seek out) more and more disabled representation in books.

cw: ableism, oralism, police brutality/aggression

Lilah, who is hard of hearing and uses hearing aids, struggles with feeling "not Deaf enough" and with her friends and parents' inability to accommodate her and constant insistence that she advocate for herself. But when she gets a position as a Junior Counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind that she grew up going to, she is thrilled to be immersed in the community and have the chance to improve her ASL. It doesn't hurt that there's a handsome male counselor there to help her improve her ASL....

I really, really enjoyed this story and struggled with how to rate it. I think some of the positives are that it is extremely informative (as a hearing person, I feel like I learned SO MUCH) without being preachy and still fitting into a narrative plot; Lilah is great, likable heroine; and it's a real coming-of-age tale. But that last one is also a con for me. I think I went in expecting a romance, and while there's certainly a sweet, seventeen-years-old style summer fling, this is not a romance. I also felt like the book tried to cram a lot of experiences and anecdotes into one novel. I don't want to list them because, spoilers, but I could have seen Sortino spreading some of the stories of struggles across multiple books and spending more time on general character, friendship, and romantic development. I do think the book concluded really nicely, though, and I never wanted to put it down. I think this book would be great for a younger high school student who is looking to learn more about the deaf community and wanting a coming-of-age story without too much of a focus on romance. I would certainly pick up another book by this author.

Thanks to Penguin Teen for my eARC and finished copy!

4 stars - 7/10

I firstly want to thank NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Give Me A Sign is an adorable YA summer camp romance with amazing representation of the Deaf and HOH community. We’re following our main character Lilah who’s struggling in a very hearing centered world. Her parents and friends have made little effort to try and accommodate to her world and rather expect her to accommodate to theirs which puts her behind in school and makes it really hard for her to effectively communicate. School’s about to be out for the summer and while all her friends have jobs and plans lined up, she decides she wants to become a counselor at a deaf/hoh friendly summer camp she used to go to. We start to follow Lilah as she makes friends, becomes more comfortable with herself, learns more about her community and falls in love too.
This was a super sweet read and my favorite thing is absolutely the representation. Starting with the cover where we can see our MC signing and from the moment you start the book and even when you start reading it, the language used makes it very clear that the author isn’t just some outside trying to write about something they don’t know about. It feels almost personal and that’s confirmed when you find out the author is also deaf.
I loved the representation and I loved learning so much more about the Deaf community.
3 stars just because there’s a LOT of telling and not really showing in the narrative which makes the pacing weird sometimes. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters but thats no ones fault, I also have to accept that I’m not the target demographic for YA books anymore which is a tough pill to swallow for me.

I was a sappy, sobbing mess by the end of this book. Such a poignant read with such important perspective and commentary on disability in an able-bodied world, accessibility and deafness in a hearing world. The romance was incredibly sweet and i absolutely adored all the characters we met. Seeing Lilahs struggles with her own deafness, not only within herself but within her family and friend group, and the varying experiences that other Deaf characters like Natasha had was incredibly poignant. As a hearing person, I appreciated the explanations of the tools and nuances within the Deaf community intertwined with Lilahs own morphing perspective on her deafness as she spent more time at camp.

Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino is not only a sweet coming of age story - it is also about finding your identity and fitting in within your own community. This book tells the story of Lilah, a Deaf teenager who has just obtained her first job as a junior counselor at Camp Gray Wolf, a camp for Deaf and Blind children. Lilah is concerned that her ASL skills may not be up to par, given that she grew up using hearing aids and her family does not sign. When Lilah gets to camp, she meets new friends including fellow counselor, Isaac, another Deaf teen. As Lilah joins her new Camp family, she learns to navigate her place in the Deaf Community.
The character of Lilah is very well-written and relatable. Her relationship with Isaac and the other counselors seemed realistic, the way real teenagers would talk and act. This book gives a lot of information about Deaf Culture, including accessibility and discrimination against people with disabilities. I loved this aspect of the book! More literature including characters with disabilities, please - especially by Own Voices authors! ( The author, Anna Sortino, is Deaf and attended a camp like the one described in the book). I highly recommend this book for teenagers and adults looking for a sweet coming of age story and one that will give you some insight into a world other than your own,.

Thanks to Penguin/G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR for the ARC! I really enjoyed this look at blind and Deaf culture.

4.25 stars!

I really enjoyed this book. Lilah and the rest of the Gray Wolf Camp staff and campers were so much fun, and I loved getting to experience the camp from Lilah’s perspective who used to go to the camp as a previous camper, now she is a junior staff member.

Lilah truly grew so much in this story, and she found out who she was within the Deaf community. I love how we got to see the progression of her learning how to advocate for herself and others. I love how comfortable she became at camp with or without her hearing aids, and coming to understanding that she is completely whole no matter how she decides to go about the world.

I didn’t know you could do alt-text options for posts, so I am now going to figure out how to do that to make my posts more accessible to others.

I loved the author’s note at the end where she explains that she had a similar experience to learning ASL at a camp. What a great book.

Give Me a Sign follows Lilah as she works as a counselor for a summer camp for deaf and blind kids. Throughout the story Lilah is struggling with determining her Deaf identity and whether she Is “deaf enough”. I found the character of Lilah to be well developed and I enjoyed seeing her perspective throughout the book. The author does well at developing the relationship between Lilah and the Isaac, the Deaf camp counselor she has a crush on, while also focusing on Lilah as an individual and her relationship with the other characters in the book. She was also able to explore the diversity of Deaf identities in a way which felt as though conversations which these characters would actually have. Overall, I think this is a good story for those who want to see a girl grow into her identity as a Deaf person while also having a summer camp romance.

Full of understanding of others’ differences and learning to be comfortable with yourself, the teens in this book were so likable. The story was a fun and very exciting read! I can’t wait to see what else Sortino can come out with!

This was such a cute and heartfelt coming of age story as well as a very cute summer romance between Lilah and Isaac. I've never read a book about Deaf and blind culture and I definitely will read more in the future. All of the side characters were great too. Everyone, hearing or Deaf, should read this book!

Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

Give Me a Sign was an absolute delight to read! More than anything, this book was very informative and provided such great insight into the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Lilah is a teenager who feels stuck. She doesn’t feel deaf enough to identify as Deaf, and she doesn’t hear well enough to meet everyday expectations. When she gets the opportunity to attend camp Gray Wolf, the same camp she attended when she was younger, as a counselor, she is excited for the opportunity. Lilah expects to learn more ASL and be part of a community that understands her better. What Lilah wasn’t expecting was meeting a super cute camp counselor who offers to help with her signing.

Read if you like:
🏕️Friends to Lovers
🏕️Summer Camp Vibes
🏕️Young Adult Books
🏕️Deaf Representation

I highly recommend this YA read, and I feel like we need more books with deaf representation. I found Give Me a Sign to be so valuable and hope you will check this one out for yourself!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Penguin Teen for providing me with a #gifted copy!

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**Posted on Instagram (full review) on July 11, 2023: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Instagram (mini review) early July, 2023: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on July 11, 2023
**-will post on designated date

Thank you so much for the e-arc!💖

This book is the most beautiful, cute and wholesome thing I have read in a long time🥹. For some time I had been eyeing this book and when I was approved by the arc I was the happiest in the world🤭.

In this book we meet Lilah, who has decided to go to a Summer Camp as a Junior Counselor. And during this time we see how she finds her community, how she learns to accept herself as she is, how society really is and obviously, to fall in love with the sweetest boy ever🥰.

I made the last 30% of this book as long as I could because I didn't want to say goodbye to such unique and sweet characters🥹. I really enjoyed this book very much and it is perfect for hearing people to understand how difficult it is for the deaf.

The book is very wholesome and cute, but personally the situation that occurs near the end of the book had me crying like a baby🫣😭. (Isaac ilysm <3)

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I thought this story was super cute and fun! The representation was so so needed and refreshing too! It was even educational, I learned a lot about deaf culture. Something about the plot just felt a little boring at times though. I still think it’s a great premise!

I received a digital ARC of this novel from Penguin Young Readers Group through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This novel follows Lilah and other campers as they attend Camp Gray Wolf, a fictional camp for the deaf and blind. I learned a lot from the story, and related to each character. This book is geared towards a Young Adult audience, but I believe that anyone will enjoy it. Especially readers who appreciate disability representation in novels. The author of the novel is Deaf, and does a fantastic job of making the point that everyone has the right to make their own choices.

"...that’s why a place like camp is so important— people can find their own Deaf identities.”
I've never been to a camp, this book made me nostalgic to the summers I could have had.
I love sign language, and I wish there were more books like this with deaf, HoH and blind representation, because this story is important, there's a sweet storyline with a strong message and unique style of writing made the book even more special. I think sign language should be mandatory for everyone, I want to learn it too, years ago I watched "switched at birth" where there's several deaf and hard of hearing actors playing characters who use sign language, I started learning alphabet and some basic words, I really want to continue learning.
I'm grateful for an early ARC for this amazing book, it's perfect for summer and I will recommend it to everyone despite their tastes in books.

I love seeing books with great representations of Deaf culture. Lilah feels like she is stuck between two worlds, the Deaf and hearing worlds. But when she becomes a camp counselor at a camp for the Deaf and Blind, she begins to discover where she truly belongs. This book provides great insight into Deaf culture and is a sweet read!

I struggled with this book. It felt as though it was a first draft. And while the plot and the idea of the book was good, the pace was off, and it had a few other problems. The biggest one being it was clear the author is either not hard of hearing, or hasn't talked to anyone in the deaf community. And perhaps it is simply the deaf community that I am near that they don't say stuff like "Hearies".
You can see the author tried, and I absolutely loved the idea of this book, but I feel it needs a lot more work before it is ready for publication. This is why I am giving it a one star review.

I adore books that teach me things & have good representation. This one had dead & hard of hearing representation. This YA debut did a great job of being the nostalgia of summer camp while educating us on how we can be more accommodating to the deaf community. I enjoyed seeing Lilah get more comfortable in her skin, and with ASL (not something her family knows). There was a cute summer romance intertwined too. I liked the perspectives in the book. There were people who’s whole families are deaf, there are some who are hard of hearing with hearing parents who use hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. The knowledge that being deaf doesn’t mean you’ve “lost” something, and that if you love someone, you can learn ASL to communicate.

I really enjoyed and can’t wait for this to come out! Thank you NetGalley for eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lilah feels somewhere in between. She doesn’t feel “deaf enough” to identify as Deaf but not “hearing enough” to meet the world’s expectations.

She takes a summer job as a junior counselor at a deaf and blind camp that she attended when she was younger in the hopes of gaining more proficiency in ASL. There she meets an eclectic group of peers including a couple of possible love interests and also learns some lessons the hard way, both personally and as a counselor.

To be honest, I wanted to like this one more than I did. The writing was fine, and there were some good points made about how insensitive and uncompromising those outside the deaf world can be. However, I felt there should have also been more of a balance of those “outsiders” who do strive for equality and inclusion with the deaf community. I also felt Lilah a bit too scattered, but at 17 I can give her a pass on that…mostly.

But I’ll also say that I’m not within this intended readership’s age so I’m probably not the best reader to judge this particular book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group/G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for providing the free early arc of Give Me a Sign for review. The opinions are strictly my own.