It's always a wonderful thing when you learn something when you are reading a new book. I know there are a lot of people out there with disabilities or differences than my own and it's always a pleasure to see life through their eyes.

This book really opened my eyes to the moon hearing world. Not only did I feel educated and intrigued but there was such a great story throughout the book. I've never been to camp but I can imagine this is what it's like.

I loved all the characters and Lilah and Isaac's story was wonderful. What really got me was Lilah's journey throughout the book, how she grew as a person and experiencing a deeper lol into dead culture.

Amazing read, and I would definitely read more from this author. The story flowed freely and consistently with heart and interest.

“It’s a strange realm, here in the middle.” Anna Sortino, quote from ARC.

“Give me a Sign”, by Anna Sortino (Penguin), is a sweet story about young love and finding your identity while embracing two worlds and struggling with different ways of communicating with others.
I liked how the author wrote the protagonist, Lilah, the way she’s split between two worlds and the difficulty defining herself (“Am I deaf enough?”).
Lilah’s journey to figure out who she is, while living in two worlds – the hearing one and the Deaf - is full of doubts, challenges, fears and finding things and making decisions as the journey happens.
Isaac is such a sweet, strong young man. He has a stabilizing, enlightening role in Lilah’s quest, while he also has struggles of his own.
The atmosphere of the summer camp, with its magic, enthusiasm, strong relationships and overcoming hurdles together is realistic and vibrant.
I liked how the author depicted the process of bonding, making new friends, falling in love while dealing with trouble communicating and frequent miscommunication because languages are different.
I also liked how Sortino captured the differences between being hard of hearing and Deaf and its implications in real life.
There’s a message of tolerance and empathy in a world that can be full of prejudice and intolerance. The story is also very didactic.

Drop everything and read this book! I’m obsessed with camp Gray Wolf and all its counsellors, but especially with Isaac and Lilah. This book weaves some important and interesting insight into D/deaf culture and experiences with teenage romance, a little angst and a lot of fun. This charming cast of characters each have their own personality and their own flaws. They’re experiencing relationship issues, identity crises, difficulty making friends, and all those other things we’ve all been through. It made it incredibly easy to empathise with the characters on that front but I also know this is going to be so impactful to those who are D/deaf or blind and don’t see themselves represented in books.

I liked the mix of group activities and one on one which allowed me to get to know the different characters better, even the grumpier ones. The dynamic between Bobby and Simone was also an absolute joy but the stars of the show are definitely Lilah and Isaac. Who doesn’t feel all the feels when there’s a shy boy in a book (or in real life!)? I loved watching this pair overcome their language barrier to get to know each other, as well as Lilah’s boldness in sharing her feelings with a bravery I have never shown myself.

This is a great story of friendships, coming into your own, romance and real life whilst also being a great opportunity to better understand a culture and community I don’t belong to.

All in all, a fantastic read that will leave you wanting more from Anna Sortino, immediately!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

Give Me a Sign is a charming and beautiful novel about falling in love and finding your community. I adored the representation of Deaf culture and I learned so much as a hearing person. I love books that takes place in the summer so this book's setting being in a summer camp felt pretty nostalgic.

Lilah becomes a counselor at a summer camp for Deaf and Blind kids. The people in her life don't really understand her, so she's excited to be around people who can relate to her. This book shows the large spectrum of deaf and hearing loss. There are different characteristics and events that give each character their own identity. The characters were hilarious and seriously had their own personality! Lilah sometimes feels like she isn't deaf enough so she can't really call herself deaf. Isaac reassures her that she belongs to the Deaf community just as much as he does, and only she can place herself where she is.

I loved the summer romance and dramatic moments. Lilah clearly struggles everyday with hearing people constantly giving her micro aggressions or just leaving her out of conversations. She makes new friends who are patient with her, She even practices her ASL! Learning a new language is tough but she perseveres because she is genuinely wanting to learn.

While I know I can't relate to what these characters go through, I have.a huge admiration for disabled communities and the need for more accommodations in public and among society. The story completely captivated me and the characters becoming comfortable with their identities warmed my heart.

This was a great story! I really felt like I was back at camp (even though I was a counsellor at an arts camp, and I am hearing!) This story gave such an interesting insight into the deaf community, and addressed so many things in deaf culture etc which I hadn't even thought about. Oh, and the cover - PERFECT. love it! The only thing stopping me giving this 5 stars is the dialogue. A lot of it just didn't feel very natural to me, and though that may well be due to deaf to hearing language barriers, it often didn't resonate with me as much as I would have hoped. But overall, a great read, and would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a sweet YA read, with excellent deaf/Deaf representation!

GIVE ME A SIGN is a YA contemporary romance about Lilah, a teenage deaf girl, who gets a job as a camp counselor at Camp Gray Wolf, a summer camp for deaf and blind kids. The only thing is, Lilah doesn't feel "deaf enough." In the "outside world" she "passes" by using hearing aids and reading lips, but at Camp Gray Wolf, Lilah takes it upon herself to brush up on her ASL skills. It helps that another counselor, the cute baseball star Isaac, is willing to teach her.

The romance is so cute! Lilah and Isaac are fully-realized with their own wants and desires, and while the characters are flawed, it's real and relatable, and you can't help but root for them. The themes about identity and belonging is particularly resonant and the perfect coming-of-age story.

I am not a member of the deaf community, nor am I hard of hearing but my mom is though, and I think she'll be thrilled to see this kind of story in the world. Sortino doesn't hold back when it comes to laying it all down in plain English just how unaccommodating - sometimes hostile - the hearing world can be. Seeing it so plainly on the page is a breath of fresh air. Sortino writes honestly, and it's a joy to read.

This book should be on the summer reading lists of YA fans everywhere. Taking place at a summer camp, this book made me feel like I was living in a log cabin spending my days swimming in lakes and roasting marshmallows over a fire. I cannot authentically review the deaf representation in this book because I am not a part of the deaf community. I will say, however, that this book further illuminated the inequities that exist in society when it comes to accommodating people of different hearing and sight levels. The friendships and romance that occurred throughout the book were so sweet and charming; Sortino perfectly captured the beauty of forming relationships at camp, while also recognizing the fear of what happens to the relationships when camp is over.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel for an honest review. It is set to be published in July 2023.

"Give Me a Sign" by Anna Sortino is a fresh coming-of-age novel telling the story of a Deaf teenager who goes to summer camp, where she finds her community and discovers her identity.
I am not part of the Deaf community, and I admit that before picking up this book, I had never heard the phrase "Deaf pride", and I was completely unaware of so many of the obstacles and dangers that Deaf people have to deal with on a daily basis, in a world that is mostly designed for the hearing.
What can I say? I was initially drawn in by the beautiful cover art, and then the writing style and the story totally captivated me; I read the second half of the book in one sitting, because by that point I couldn't put it down.
I found the characters extremely relatable - even though we live very different lives - and, even if at times there was more exposition than I would normally like in a novel, it didn't annoy me as much as it usually does, because these were things that I honestly knew nothing about, and I didn't mind too much being lectured about.
Overall, I immensely enjoyed this novel, not only for the romance, but most of all for giving me the chance to experience the world through a whole new perspective. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author, and hopefully from other Deaf writers just as talented!

I loved the information we got on not only the deaf community but also just hearing aids. It was interesting to see the struggle that deaf and hard of hearing people go through even with each other.
I didn’t really feel all the fun camp vibes I felt this should have had, it was very much focused on the drama, romance and Lilah feeling “out of place”. I see why she felt out of place but at the same time she was very rude and snappy when I felt like others were just trying to help her.
I think the book is really just focused on Lilah finding her place and feeling comfortable with herself, yes she has a relationship but I didn’t think it really added anything major to the plot.
Overall I really feel like I learned a lot about the deaf community, the struggles and how important it is for anyone involved in the community to not feel “left out” or “different”.

Give Me A Sign is the perfect blend of self discovery, finding your community, and romance. The story had me hooked from the first page, and the characters felt like close friends by the time it ended.

This book is a great representation of Deaf culture and as a hearing person I found it eye opening to what those around me might be experiencing.

Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for the ARC!

4.8

What an excellent read courtesy of Penguin Young Readers and Netgalley! Give Me A Sign by Anna Sortino is a fluffy romance novel set at Camp Gray Wolf, a summer camp for deaf and blind youths.

I loved the main character Lilah and enjoyed watching her navigate a community that she felt she wasn’t “enough” to be in. The book also taught me a lot about Deaf culture — like the logistics of cochlear implants and the differences between BSL and ASL. I liked how not everything was translated, so that the readers can experience Lilah’s confusion first hand and not have everything spelled out for us. I’m a big fan of the summer romance trope and I enjoyed the setting and cast of characters I was introduced to.

Overall, this book gets a 4.8 out of 5 from me and I’m looking forward to Anna Sortino’s next novel!

5/5 🌟🤟🏻💕

I received an e-arc of this YA novel from Net Gallery in exchange for my full, honest review! I was very interested in seeing this book to be requested on Net Gallery and became ever more excited at the opportunity to read it before it had been published!

I genuinely find ASL to be beautiful and the community that deaf people have built to be so interesting. I can’t completely understand the wholeness of the importance of this story and what it can mean to this community but I can tell when an author has heart in his/her message, and Anna certainly does <3

I’m definitely excited to see whatever else this author has to offer and to learn more about this wonderful community of people!

This review is based on an ARC of Give Me a Sign which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers).


Is it too much to ask for a diverse and inclusive, fluffy, YA summer romance without nattering SJW chastisement? I wanted to read a cute story about falling in love over canoes and campfires, not be lectured on how to be PC toward the deaf community. I get that these topics need to be broached--and obviously in a book with deaf characters, written by a deaf author, there is ample chance to do so--but the execution here was a tad heavy-handed.

Also, I didn't click with the characters. Maybe I am getting too old for YA... If this is the new norm--lecturing and guilt-tripping from the voices of self-pitying, know-it-all teenagers--I'll leave modern YA to the kids and go back to the classics. Kissing Kate , anyone? Anything by John Green?

I'm just gonna stamp this one with a big ol' "Not For Me".

I received a digital copy of Give Me a Sign via NetGalley to read and review.

I think Give Me a Sign is geared more towards teens but I think any age group can gain insight by reading. Just keep in mind the story is from the point of view of a 17 year old so it makes for her to not always make the best choices. Even with that I don’t feel like any of the experiences described were over embellished- a lot of these things can and probably do happen.

The story takes place at Camp Gray Wolf which is a summer camp for Deaf and visually impaired. Lilah is a junior counselor who is hard of hearing. We follow her while she tries to become more fluent in sign language (her parents are hearing and don’t sign). It’s great to notice her confidence build and be able to communicate with others in her community.

This was a well-done book for someone who is looking to understand the lived deaf experience and to also create sensitivity for those who are challenged in some way because of a disability. I enjoyed the insights and the fact that this was written by someone who is hearing impaired was certainly an asset, because the author writes from a place of having had to face similar challenges to the characters in her own life. I did find that the description of the book was misleading, because it pitches things as a bit more exciting than the book actually was. That doesn't mean it was boring, but I found that the real story is in Lilah figuring out her place in the community and owning her deafness, so all of the other pieces referenced in the description were minor and secondary to that. And someone who picks this up expecting excitement, bonding and romance would likely think this didn't quite deliver. I do think the book was well written and the character of Lilah well developed. That being said, I also think it was a bit longer than it needed to be and crammed a lot in that wasn't necessary. Lilah and Isaac's relationship did very little for the book; there were so many characters depicting different aspects of the lived deaf experience that I was sometimes lost with who was who; and there were a lot of things that happened that seemed to have been thrown together just to show specific situations like the storm and the run in with locals. I feel like the book could have left some of those out, reduced by 100 pages, and still done a really good job of building awareness and understanding. I also found the introduction of Max at camp really jarring, especially as he kind of popped up in the last 50 pages and factored in a total of two interactions. Again, he was there so that Lilah could have a voice on implants, but it definitely didn't work.

A good middle school to young adult read (PG not MA) which will help to build awareness for deaf culture. Readable, but not earth shattering. I would likely have given this a 3 star if I had been rating it for romance. But as a book about being deaf, it's a solid 4.

What an important, informative, and wholly sweet book. I loved how Lilah explored the nuances of her deafness and finding her place within the Deaf community. It's a beautiful coming of age story that helps to point out the ableism that affects her everyday life without being (for the most part) too heavy-handed. I've loved the recent crop of media about Deaf culture--but most likely it was there all along, and shame on me for not having found it.

I find it hard to find the right words for this book, it was just so heartwarming, sweet and wholesome.

We get to know Lilah who is a junior councilor at camp Grey Wolf, a camp for blind and deaf kids. Through the summer Lilah comes to grips with her own deafness and becomes comfortable using ASL and confident without hearing aids. Even though I'm not deaf or hoh, I could relate to a few of the things Lilah have experienced with me having adhd and probably apd. The frustration Anna manages to convey when you can't understand the world around you and how difficult it is to ask for accommodation to your disabilities is too good.

I would love to read more from Anna and get to know the deaf community better and hopefully this book will help the stigma surrounding deafness.

I absolutely loved this book!! I was given an ARC by Penguin Young Readers and Netgalley in exchange for a honest review!!

This book was incredible! I am a deaf blind intervenor and have only dipped my toe in deaf culture these past 7 years as there is so much to learn and explore. I loved how authentic this book was and how it explored all levels of deafness and we also got to see blind characters as well! I loved the camp setting and all the side characters. I loved how Anna talked about even though someone may wear hearing aids they are still missing pieces of the conversation. I like how Anna wrote all the interactions and left blank spaces for the things Lilah misses. It made you feel like you were missing just as much as the information Lilah was missing. I enjoyed reading about the different experiences of someone that has a cochlear implant. One person may love their experience well another person could hate their experience and wish they never got one in the first place. I adored the relationship between Lilah and her brother Max. I loved the relationship between Lilah and Isaac. I also really enjoyed the growth of Lilah throughout her time at camp you could really see her start to flourish. I loved this book and definitely need a copy for my shelves!

Be sure to pick this up on July 11,23. Thanks again for letting me read my most anticipated read early!!

Thank you so much to PenguinTeenCanada for this arc!

I honestly chose this arc specifically because the synopsis sounded like my friend Jo's life and my first thought was "she needs to read this". So, with some finagling, I was able to send her a copy to read and review, and after hearing her thoughts I decided to pick it up sooner rather than later. If she ever gets around to writing a proper review, I'll probably edit this one and add it here because I don't think my thoughts would do this book justice.

I'm always hesitant when it comes to summer YA romances because most of them are just meh and I don't care too much about the plot and whatever the characters are going through. But the theme for me seems to be that if the book has diverse characters and representation, I'm 100% more likely to love it.

This book was so so good. It reminds me of how I felt after reading "Love from A to Z". That book was the kind of representation I needed as a kid, and as Jo told me, what she needed too. I'm so glad we live in a world where books like this now exist and I hope this book reaches all the Deaf kids and teenagers out there who want to see themselves as the main character in a book.

Were there some cringe parts? Yes. Did I care? No, lol. It was overall very cute and I was shipping the two characters from the beginning. Mackenzie did annoy me a lot, but I did like how everyone called her out on her behaviour. Lilah's interactions with the kids was probably my favourite, and I loved seeing her become more confident with ASL.

This book does have some heavier, more emotional parts that could be difficult for some people to read, but I think were important to capture the reality of living in a world that isn't very welcoming or understanding of Deaf folk.

If you're looking for a good summer YA contemporary and are hesitant like me, I highly recommend picking up this book. You won't be disappointed.

I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I do not suffer from hearing loss of any sort. That being said I have always been intrigued by ASL and deaf culture. I was excited to see and be chosen to read a book about this. Knowing the author is actually deaf was a huge plus. It was someone with real experience having a voice and getting a say by knowing firsthand how life as deaf is. I really enjoyed how the struggles were upfront and honest. I like how the highs were celebrated. The romance in the book wasn't instalove or over the top. It was just cute and sweet. You got to see the main character grow in her confidence in herself along with the friendships of those around her. Great book!