A wonderful own voices story. I definitely enjoyed the summer camp; it felt almost exactly like the ones I went to as a kid - kinda beaten up but well loved. Some parts felt a lot more telling than showing as the MC brought up a bunch of problems with the deaf community which are very valid but more preachy? It's hard to strike that balance but sometimes it felt like she toed if not crossed that line.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest opinion.

As a hearing person, I loved getting to learn more about Deaf culture and see Deaf representation.
It was a great YA book about going to camp and learning more about your true self.
It is so important to read and see how our society isn't accommodating to those who are even just a little disabled. As a society we need to take steps to help accommodate for others.
This was a quick read and great for summer and romance.

With my past experiences with American Sign Language (ASL) and brief experiences with the unique Deaf culture, I was captivated by the fresh perspective presented in the young adult novel Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino (G.P. Putnam and Sons for Young Readers, July 2023). This story revolves around Lilah, a hard-of-hearing teenager, who returns to a summer camp for the Deaf and Blind as a counselor. This experience immerses her in ASL and Deaf culture, offering her a new sense of belonging in her complicated half-hearing and half-silent life.

Like many Deaf or hard-of-hearing children of hearing parents, seventeen-year-old Lilah has primarily relied on lip reading and speech training, with limited exposure to ASL for communication. However, as her hearing further diminishes, she finds that she now struggles to connect with her friends and is falling behind in school. Seeking inclusion and a place in the world, Lilah takes a job at the summer camp to learn ASL and find friendship. As expected, her time at camp becomes a transformative journey filled with developing friendships, learning ASL, and becoming a part of Deaf culture. She also has a summer romance.

Give Me a Sign effectively opened my eyes to not only the wide diversity of hearing challenges and the beauty of the unique Deaf culture, but also to the very real challenges that Deaf people face in their daily lives and in crisis situations. For example, the novel sheds light on the lack of preparedness in most communities to provide ASL interpreters when a Deaf person goes to the hospital or interacts with law enforcement. The novel shows how basic patience tends to be forgotten when communicating with individuals who cannot understand. Although Deaf individuals are not facing the same issues currently in the news, such as the unjust reporting of young Black men in their own neighborhoods, they do experience discrimination and face challenges unique to them.

Although I appreciated the insight into a culture I’m not a part of, Give Me a Sign was not a favorite story for me. Lilah’s personal growth journey was satisfying, but from the beginning of Lilah’s summer camp experience, it was clear that the author was aiming to write a “summer romance” book. Although there was nothing even remotely inappropriate in Lilah and Isaac’s relationship, and it included just a bit of kissing, I personally felt that the development of a strong friendship would have been just as significant. Introducing the romantic element added drama to the story, but for me, it distracted from the core story of Lilah’s transition from feeling like an outsider to finding a sense of belonging.

P.S. On the cover, I think Isaac is saying “Exciting!” Lilah is saying “Right!” (Tell me if I’m wrong! I’m pretty rusty in ASL.)

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance review copy of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Why aren't there more summer camp counselor novels?!? Camp Gray Wolf caters to teens with visual and audio impairments--deaf and blind kids, that is. Protagonist Lilah hasn't been to camp in years, but getting tired of what a struggle it is to not-quite get by in her mainstreamed life, she impulsively decides to apply to be a junior counselor, and even convinces her parents to send her younger brother, Max to go as a camper.

At camp, Lilah starts out just as frustrated trying to keep up with other counselors' fluent ASL, but she really wants to learn. She gets lots of support from fellow counselor Isaac, from whom she'd like a little more.

At the beginning of the book, we meet Lilah who is deaf and she sees some of the challenges she faces in the hearing world until we find out about a summer opportunity. Lilah decides to become a junior counselor for Camp Gray Wolf which is a camp for the deaf and blind which is an entirely new set of challenges.

While we watch camp through Lilah’s eyes, we’re also enmeshed in so many different people who have all different disabilities and the varying levels they come with. Of course, it wouldn’t be a camp book without a little bit of summer romance for Lilah as she’s starting to get feelings for another counselor.

Even though this book is a lot of fun, it does have some larger topics and subject matter I’ve never thought about. As someone who isn’t deaf, I don’t even have to think about these things which is a privilege. Even so, I feel as though this book tackles things such as the spectrum of deafness, accessibility, and how being in the hearing world can warp someone’s perception of you.

The commentary in this book also feels perfect for a YA audience, too. Whether you’re deaf or not, the book makes sure to focus on issues teens are dealing with such as romance, drama between friends, and trying to find your place. Honestly, it ended up being such an eye-opening experience for me and I hope this book ends up in the hands of those who need it and will appreciate it.

While I do think the pacing was a bit off and I would have liked to see a bit more romance, Give Me A Sign was a fun read so I can’t really complain. I think if you’re looking for a summer camp book, you won’t be disappointed with this one.

It’s tough for me to review this book, because while I appreciate all of the topics related to the d/Deaf community that Sortino addressed in this book, I feel like she tried to cover so much that nothing was explained particularly well. Also, there was far too much telling instead of showing, to the point where the story suffered. I wanted to love this book, and while I will recommend it to people wanting to learn more about deaf people who aren’t exposed to sign language at a young age, I can’t recommend it to everyone because it just wasn’t written very well.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Starting this review by saying that the cover is a gorgeous one and I can stare at it for hours.

Give me a Sign is a book that I was not familiar until I saw it in Penguin Teen newsletter and I requested when I read it includes a deaf character which I rarely read in books.

What I learned when I read this book is that deafness has a range of experience.

Lilah, a teen who is diagnosed with hearing loss, is spending her time at a summer camp for deaf and blind kids as a counselor. This helped me see how experiences of people who are deaf vary from one another and how they were able to navigate this world through the help of others, hearing aides, or sign language.

After reading more about deaf as a disability, I am encouraged to learn the basic (or more) of sign language because we interact with deaf people on a daily basis - there are companies who hire them and they work for them as crew in malls or foid industry.

I felt like Anna Sortino did a great job with this debut and I'm curious to read this through an audiobook if there'll be one.

Though there is a specific part in this book that is heartbreaking to read, I believe it is necessary since these scenarios happen in real life.

Thank you Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Give Me A Sign by Anna Sortino

I absolutely loved this book! It follows Lilah who decides to become a counselor at the summer camp she attended when she was a child. It is a camp for deaf and blind children and Lilah has significant hearing loss and sometimes struggles to fit into the hearing world. She is hoping that this summer she will finally find a place where she feels she belongs. Instead when she arrives, she notices a lot of the other counselors are using sign language and while she knows some ASL, she isn’t fluent and feels like she is missing out on the conversation. Luckily some of the other counselors are willing to work with her, including Isaac, who she used to attend camp with and is completely deaf. He is patient with her and willing to help her fill in the blanks when she isn’t sure of the sign to use while communicating. Eventually Lilah ends up falling hard for Isaac!

Something else Lilah has noticed about the camp is that it is more run down than she remembers as a child. As it turns out, the camp is on its last legs and is in desperate need of funding to continue operating in the future. Together, Lilah, her fellow counselors, and the campers create a PSA to help spread awareness of their camp and their desperate need for funds.

I also enjoyed Lilah interacting with her campers. She started working with the younger girls, who she helped get along and become friends by the end of summer. Then she switched to working with the older girls and gained a friend in Phoebe, a girl who is blind and a year younger than Lilah. Lilah discovered that she really enjoyed becoming a role model for the kids at the camp and even convinced Phoebe to become a Jr. counselor the next year.

The book is filled with the usual summer camp activities of making friendship bracelets, swimming with British lifeguards watching, playing group games, sneaking out past curfew, bad storms, and more! Truthfully, this book made summer camp sound way more fun the one year I attended a day camp and didn’t enjoy it at all.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Anna Sortino, and Penguin Random House for allowing me to read this advanced copy of Give Me A Sign! I enjoyed it so much and definitely recommend it! It is a fun summer read with the whole camp experience! I actually hope it has a sequel as I would love to return to Camp Gray Wolf! The book was also a great introduction to the deaf community and their culture. Finally, I would like to mention that the author does have resources for learning ASL on their website if anyone is interested.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Give Me a Sign releases July 11, 2023

3.5

<i>“It’s not hearing loss—it’s Deaf gain.”</I>

Lilah, our main character, is a hard of hearing teen who wears hearing aids.
This story mainly takes place at Gray Wolf: a summer camp for the Deaf and Blind, where Lilah (a previous camper) is taking on the role as junior camp counselor for the first time.

Lilah resides right in the middle of the hearing world and the non-hearing. In a sense, being biracial myself, I can understand her feelings and the balance she strives to maintain, where she doesn’t quite fit in or isn’t seen as “enough” to pass wholly as either one, which can be difficult at times to come to terms with and navigate.
Seeing her growth over the course of the summer and implementing change within herself, her family, and friends was really nice.
<i>“I don’t need to be more hearing or prove my deafness. I can bring both worlds together. Just being myself, I’m complete.”</I>

While reading this debut, I kept having these waves of frustration, realizing how inaccessible this world can be for those with disabilities. Not only that, but the way Lilah’s friends from her school didn’t seem too accommodating, or how Natasha kept appearing irritated from having to serve as an interpreter at camp between Lilah and others who were more advanced in their ASL.
Instances like trying to order food through the drive-thru and being turned away, or the police brutality and being seen as a threat when it’s a matter of miscommunication (that scene had my heart in my throat and I still don’t know how I feel about it being included — it was rough, it was real, it was scary).

A lot of the characters actually came across as unlikeable to me (aside from Isaac) and I don’t know if that was meant to be done on purpose or not in order to make the character arcs more easily distinguishable.

All of the “what” from Lilah when she couldn’t hear or missed a part of dialogue grated on me so fast. Maybe I was raised differently or it was ingrained in me at a young age to not respond like that over and over because it comes across as rude, but I found it telling how it took 17 years and meeting someone who’s British to learn the term “pardon me”.

I kept getting a sense that there was a love triangle brewing, and I think it was one element too much in addition to everything else going on that didn’t lead anywhere — if only to fuel one character’s jealously/miscommunication.
Additionally, I think the pacing for the insertion of Max’s character at the camp could have been better.

While this wasn’t completely a fluffy feel good story all the way through, Sortino does weave in Deaf and disability pride with moments of uncertainty, and opportunity for growth, while also showing how those outside <I>and inside</I> the deaf community can present as being ableist.
I love coming across new diverse reads, and I hope this finds those that need the reassurance and representation.

cw: underage drinking, police brutality, ableism, discrimination

This was a very eye opening book. While I did not grow up with hearing impaired people in my life, as a young girl, I had a blind babysitter. She and her guide dog Rocky would pick me up after school in kindergarten and walk me back to her house, normally her husband, also blind, would come home before my mom picked me up. I say this because it makes me feel "woke" I suppose, but we are never "woke" to other people's worlds in the way we think we are or should be. Redo that scene in the store from a African American perspective - same kind of scary, same possibilities for outcomes that shouldn't have to happen. The hearing don't know that Deaf don't envy us or wish they were like us, they just wish we'd get it. The challenge for everyone is to be as accepting of another person as you can, even if you have to do or learn something new, often times, they already did

Finally an excuse to use all my favorite ASL gifs!

This is such an important book! So much of media portrays Deafness in a very specific way. I don't think I've seen a lot of stories like Lilah's in books or movies before. Lilah was born deaf but raised in the hearing world.

Lilah's parents have not learned ASL nor did they let her learn ASL growing up. This is so common, and while I know the parents mean well, stories like these make me so sad. If your child is deaf, please teach them sign. Please learn sign yourself. Let your child decide for themselves if they want to speak ASL, English, or a mix of both. Don't limit their ways of communication just because you want them to be immersed in the hearing world.

Lilah wants to learn ASL and become more connected with the Deaf community, but she sometimes struggles with her identity and if she is "deaf enough." This type of representation is incredibly important. And I'm so glad that this is an OwnVoices story and the author was able to share some of her personal experiences through Lilah's story.

Their summer romance was so sweet. Their steady and patient communication to get to know one another while Lilah learned ASL was so precious.

Recommended for everyone. This is an important book to read if you're Deaf, have a Deaf / hard-of-hearing friend, want to learn more about disability, or want to learn more about Deaf culture.

What a delight of a book, and what a perfect time to read it! I finished it just as summer was starting to creep into my area, and it was amazing to read such a touching story about teens connecting at a summer camp for the deaf and blind. The touch of romance was the cherry on top. I cannot wait to see what else Anna Sortino has in store.

This book was incredible. I feel so lucky to have been able to read it. I hope that the students at my ASL school will be able to see themselves in Lilah, Isaac, and their friends. The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is because it seems written to a lower audience than the typical high schooler--the language and language seem more similar to a middle grade book than a YA>

Reading this book made me think about all the times I've been forced to go to Church or to listen to personal development seminars in the past. It was just so incredibly preachy that it became difficult to tolerate at times.


🍃 THE STORY

Before anything else -- I did learn a lot about Deaf culture, which is fantastic. However! I just wish that this book had more showing than telling. I read as an escape, you know? At some point, I felt like I was reading a formal complaint to the mayor's office or something. 90% of the book was just the main character complaining about Deaf struggles (and I do recognize and admire the passion that went into this). It just felt like there was no actual story. This was your very typical, cliche summer camp romance story retold with disabled characters.


🍃 THE CHARACTERS

The MC, Lilah
The heroine in Give Me a Sign is hard of hearing, and it makes so much sense that she would feel like the world around her doesn't treat her the way she should be treated. Even without knowing that the author herself is Deaf, the main character was very clearly written by someone who has incredibly strong and firm beliefs, which I have a lot of respect for. That being said, it was so difficult for me to get into her character. She was pushing other people to be mindful and respectful, when she herself didn't always act in a way that warranted respect. There wasn't anything interesting about her aside from her being Deaf.

Other Characters
I honestly can't remember jack shit about any of the other characters. Isaac, the love interest was sweet; Lilah's little brother was cute -- that's about it! I can't even remember anyone's names or what differentiated any of them from each other. All of the characters were pretty flat and unremarkable. They were just used as examples of the different Deaf/disabled experiences.


🍃 CONCLUSION

I would sort-of recommend this to others, but purely for educational (as opposed to recreational) purposes. You'll learn a lot from this, really. You just need to go in with an open mind and a lot of patience. Maybe go into this one thinking you're reading an instruction manual or something.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The only reason I requested this was because I want to learn sign language and I was intrigued by this concept. I’ve learned a few words but that’s all.

Anyways, I feel like the characters are really well written, thought out, and they have their own personality. The story plot was okay in my opinion, the concept was better but the interactions between everyone was what really made this story nice for me. It’s nice to kinda read how HoH people communicate with other HoH people as well as hearing people, and the struggles as well. Also, the writing is easy to read and follow, except sometimes for the signing parts.

Besides that, I also like that this book tackles the problem of hearing people who are only learning sign language don’t clarify they are learning and don’t have the power to teach correctly. I see hearing people sign on TikTok all the time and they get way more recognition than HoH creators. For people who really want to learn by themselves and can’t learn from deaf people, you can check out Bill Vicars on YouTube, Signing Savvy or ASLPRO.CC

As for the romance part, I don’t like insta love much. But, the relationship building after was nice, even with the miscommunication and mixed signals. Actually scratch that, the relationship building was so abrupt? Pacing was off for my liking and the relationship blossomed to quick but the couple is still cute.


Overall, the books sends a good message to everyone who reads it.

Representation. Nostalgia. Romance. Summer camp. All of my favorite things in one book. While Give Me A Sign does fall flat at times, ultimately, it is the perfect book for summer with a side of important representation. I am also not apart of the Deaf or HOH community, but I do appreciate this book. My opinion does not hold as much weight as those apart of the community, and as long as those in the community support the book, I would love to have more characters like Lilah, Issac, and Ethan in my classroom.

This was an incredible #ownvoices story about a teen girl born hard of hearing who goes to work as a councillor in training at a summer camp for the deaf and blind. I loved that this book explores the range of deaf experiences, from those born deaf. those with hearing aids, those with cochlear implants, those who choose to only speak with sign language among others. There's no one right way to be 'deaf' or "Deaf" as our main character comes to learn over the summer.

The author also does a good job depicting different forms of ableism and a particularly hard to listen episode of police brutality against a BIPOC deaf teen boy who unknowingly resists arrest not realizing what's going on. There was so much to take away in this book, but also a light-hearted summer romance to balance the heavy with the sweet. Great on audio too with moments where speech is muffled to mimic how people with hearing impairments might experience things and space for sign (which is illustrated in print copies of the book).

Wonderful and highly recommended, especially for fans of books like The silence between us by Alison Gervais or True Biz by Sara Novic. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Lilah often feels stranded between two worlds: the hearing world and the deaf community. One of the only places she’s felt at home is at Camp Grey Wolf, a summer camp for deaf and blind young people. But when Lilah signs up to be a Junior Counsellor at camp for the first time, things aren’t as simple as they were when she was a camper there. For one thing, the camp is struggling with fundraising, so they might not be able to continue for much longer, and for another, there’s Isaac, another counsellor and fellow ex-camper, who’s helping Lilah with her signing and who Lilah can’t help but wish would give her a sign he likes her back…

Give Me a Sign is a wonderful story of community, with a sweet romance subplot and incredible Deaf and disabled representation. I’m a hearing person but am disabled in other ways and consider myself pretty well immersed into disability culture and spaces, but I still learnt A Lot from this book. There were quite a few moments where it felt like the author was trying to teach rather than tell a story, but it all felt important to know and include and so I didn’t mind it as much as I might have in another story.

I do wish there had been more set-up at the beginning instead of leaping straight into the world of camp so that we could learn more about Lilah and gain more contrast between mainstream [Read: ableist] society and the community they create at Camp Grey Wolf. Lilah is an incredibly well-developed character in some ways – her struggle to work out where she places herself within different communities and how much or little of herself she wants to reclaim was all fantastic and so thoughtfully done – but I would still have liked to know a little more about her and her interests and hopes and dreams for her future. Additionally, the fundraising plot didn’t feel like that necessary a plot. It was resolved very simply at the end of the story, which didn’t feel particularly satisfying. I’d have liked for it to have been made more of an issue throughout and culminated in something more dramatic and grounded to the rest of the story arcs.

However, overall this is a real stand-out debut novel with deaf representation on a whole other level to anything else I’ve read before. I’ll definitely be getting the book in my library for my students, and I know the story will mean a lot to a great many people out there.

Give Me a Sign follows Lilah, who is struggling to find her place in the Deaf community and the world as a whole, by feeling not "deaf enough" for the Deaf community, but also not "hearing enough" for the hearing world. When she is hired as a junior counselor at Camp Gray Wolf, a summer camp for the deaf and blind, she is focused on improving her ASL and integrating herself more into her community. Unfortunately for Lilah, summer camp is more difficult than she remembers, and a budding romance could lead to disaster, or a happily ever after.

I just absolutely and completely adored this book. Lilah was a fantastic main character and it was such an open and honest portrayal of someone struggling to find a community they belong to, or feeling as though they aren't enough for their own community. I won't speak on the Deaf representation, as I am not deaf or hard of hearing, but I will say that I really appreciated the author providing so many different experiences for each of the characters. The Deaf community, like any community, is not a monolith and it was great to read about each character's story and identity. It was wonderful to see Lilah's confidence in herself grow throughout her time at the camp and through the relationships she made and rekindled. Her initial avoidance of advocating for herself to being able to express her struggles to her friends and family and ask them to make changes was amazing character growth. I loved seeing Lilah's relationships with all of the characters grow and evolve throughout the story. Her relationship with Isaac was lovely and made my heart happy, and I'm super pleased with the ending for the two of them.

I could gush about this book forever, but I'll just say, this is a must-read for YA fans this year, so definitely make sure to pick it up in July when it comes out!

Give ME a Sign was a very important book for me to read. My 15 year old daughter got hearing aids last summer when we found out she has a moderate hearing loss .We do not know what caused it (although it is likely hereditary) or if it will get worse as she gets older, so this book hit very close to home for me. It allowed me to see my daughter's hearing loss from her perspective a little better. I enjoyed the storyline of Lilah being a camp counselor, and I felt bad for her not feeling like she fit into either world. It was a great story because it had several characters that were very different from one another which helped to illustrate the vast difference in people with hearing loss or deafness. The relationship with Lilah and Isaac was a little annoying at first but I had to remind myself that they are teenagers and adults can't even figure out their relationships half of the time, and as time went on they got better at figuring things out. This was a really good book and I hope to see more from Anna Sortino in the future.