Oh, my heart. I taught myself ASL and am a huge advocate for Deaf culture, and I'm so glad so many books are coming out with this representation, especially from an author who actually knows what she's talking about! With the romance and the camp setting, this is the absolute perfect read for your summer vacation. I really felt for Lilah and her struggle with being in between and so admired her desire to learn more about a culture she was only partway inaugurated into. Isaac was a total sweetheart and I loved finally being able to put my ASL skills to use by following along with him and Lilah's conversations! The campers were pretty adorable too. Overall, this is such an important read if you don't know much about the HoH struggles, Deaf culture/community, or even if you want to learn more about the issues with hearing aids and cochlear implants! I really encourage everyone to pick this up if you are at all interested in a community that is (hopefully) becoming more integrated in society.

What an important book for teenagers! I found this book so helpful for getting a glimpse into people's experiences being deaf or hard of hearing, especially as teenagers. It's interesting how they all have to find their own identities both in the hearing world and as part of the Deaf community. This book balances story and education on this subject really well.

I liked watching Lilah grow and find her place throughout this book, and I loved her interactions with others. She makes mistakes, but she's quick to own them and try better. The romance with Isaac is cute too, especially with the backdrop of summer camp. I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but overall I think this book is a great debut novel. I'd highly recommend for anyone looking to gain understanding and empathy for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Writing Aesthetic/Style: 4
Plot/Movement: 3
Character Development: 4
Overall: 4

Thank you, Penguin Teen, for the arc!

Trigger/Content Warnings: deafness, blindness, and hard of hearing, and all the prejudice and uneducated words and actions of others that comes with that; accusation and wrongful police arrest; kisses

Rating: 5⭐️

Thank you to Putnam Young Readers and Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! I am not deaf, but I have always been interested in learning more about Deaf culture and have even taken some sign language classes at university. This book really shows the struggles and isolation of Deaf people within the hearing world. Lilah represents how many kids with disabilities are expected to fit into society and adapt to the world around them. While this book is really good at highlighting the struggles Lilah faces, it also gives so much information on how others can help accommodate Deaf people. There are facts about Deaf culture and explanations of how to sign some things, which is a very fun element. Lilah is surrounded by Deaf people who can speak fluent sign language, but she also meets people like her facing identity dysmorphia, all of whom she learns from. Her fellow counsellor, Isaac, helps Lilah with her ASL while at the camp and through their friendship, a romance blooms.

I loved Lilah and Isaac’s relationship throughout the story. Isaac’s patience with Lilah was adorable. They had immediate chemistry and could joke around so easily with each other, which helped Lilah fit into the Deaf community around her. There were moments when Lilah would sign something incorrectly and Isaac would help her correct it, after teasing her a little about her mistakes first. Lilah’s friendships with the other characters were so wholesome. I especially loved Bobby’s humour. As a blind counsellor, he made many sight jokes that were pretty funny. It added humour to such a serious topic. As a side note, I grew up going to a summer camp and this made me reminisce about my time as a child at summer camp which was so fun to read about.

So much miscommunication can come with trying to learn a new language, especially one that doesn’t usually involve talking. There are some parts of the book that showcase that and it is so important that people understand what deaf people have to endure on a daily basis in the hearing world. I like that different communication forms were introduced, including ASL, hearing aids, and cochlear implants. This is a story about learning to love yourself and finding where you belong in your world. I think everyone who enjoys YA books should read this book since it discusses a very important topic, it reads very easily and would be appropriate for younger readers as well.

I'll cut to the chase: This book is my heart.

I am not Deaf, but I am hard of hearing, and I've never read a book with Deaf or HoH characters at the center. So, when the author posted about ARCs, I jumped at the opportunity.

Lilah is 17, wears hearing aids, but doesn't feel completely comfortable in either the Deaf or hearing community. But that changed for her every summer when she embraced her Deafness at Camp Graywolf, a camp for the Deaf and Blind.

And now, the summer before her senior year of high school, she's a junior counselor at the place where she is her most authentic self. During this summer, she practices ASL, experiences both external and internal ableism, learns to advocate for her wants and needs (related and unrelated to her Deafness). She advocates for her Deaf younger brother re: cochlear implants being his decision (rather than their parents'. )

Oh, and she falls in love with another counselor 😍

This book took a while to read because it took my heart on a journey of my own camp experience: Camp Burnt Gin in Wedgefield, SC, a camp for kids, teens, and young adults with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

Like Lilah, I was a long time camper and returned as a counselor years later. Like Lilah, I had a learning curve in the transition from camper to counselor. Like Lilah, I experienced internal ableism. And like Lilah at Camp Graywolf, I was my most authentic self at Camp Burnt Gin.

All that to say, this book was a week long bear hug. I highly recommend it. For anyone teen on up, who wants a story of growth, ache, finding your community and yourself, and the challenges of summer love.

This book (which I pre-ordered) releases on July 11, 2023

CW: internal and external ableism, appropriation, from acquaintances, friends, and family. All condemned by this author, who is Deaf herself.

Thanks to @netgalley , @penguinteen and Anna Sortino for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you enjoyed last year's book, True Biz by Sara Novic, you should definitely check this one out. Don't let the fact that it is YA deter you from giving this one a go. One of my favorite things about this book is that it shows that being deaf is not a monolithic experience. There are many different levels of hearing loss, and each person who is deaf or hard of hearing experiences the world in different ways. Lilah is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids. However, her hearing aids are not a "cure" or "fix all" for her hearing loss. She still struggles in mainstream school with friends who often forget she is hard of hearing. She applies for a job as a summer camp counselor at a summer camp for deaf/blind children that she attended when she was younger. Her summer at Grey Wolf is filled with ups and downs, but Lilah learns a lot about herself over the course of the summer. She even has a romance that she wasn't expecting. Give me a Sign also shows what it is like to navigate being deaf or hard of hearing in a hearing world, and the lack of accessibility and ignorance that these characters face is heartbreaking and ridiculous. I read this book in one sitting, and these are characters that I won't soon forget. I wouldn't mind if this book got a sequel.. This is Anna Sortino's first novel, but I have a feeling that we will be seeing more of her. Thank you Penguin Teen for the digital ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gave wonderful insight into Deaf culture and the Deaf community - plus was a great teen romance! The summer camp setting was a lot of fun. The relationships between Lilah and her family, Lilah and the young campers she's overseeing, Lilah and the other counselors - including her love interest Isaac -were all well-drawn and believable. The final conflict was harrowing and all too real. Highly recommended!

[Thank you Penguin Teen for the gifted copy, out 7/11!]

Anna Sortino’s GIVE ME A SIGN is your perfect 2023 YA romance read. Lilah never feels like enough—not with her hearing parents, whose sole goal for Lilah seems to be to have her pass as hearing; not with the rest of her hearing classmates, who seem to think that having some hearing loss means that she isn’t “deaf enough”; not with the rest of the hearing world, where she navigates miscommunication and listening fatigue; and not even with her friends, who don’t understand what she needs to be able to communicate. But then she finds herself at a summer camp for the deaf and blind as a counselor and in a community where she finally feels like she belongs.

At camp, Lilah navigates romance, hot lifeguards, friendship, and Deaf identity—finally confronting the “strange realm, here in the middle.” I felt warm all over following Lilah’s journey as she became more comfortable with ASL and her own place on the spectrum of Deafness (and, naturally, my heart fluttered at how wonderfully attentive her cute co-counselor was at helping her learn ASL and making sure she felt included). My heart also ached, because a summer camp focused on disability pride is an experience I would’ve loved to have as a disabled kid growing up all alone.

What a wonderful middle grade/young adult novel about going to summer camp and realizing your true self. Lilah has always been self conscious of her hearing loss and refusing to accept that she may need further accommodations but when she gets a job at a summer camp for deaf and blind kids, she discovers more than she ever knew.

This book is such an important read to see how un-accommodating society is to those who are even slightly disabled. Closed captions on movies and tv should be default. Understand those who aren’t understand you may need a different way to communicate. And sign language not being widely know can really get in the way of miscommunication, as shown in this book time and time again. The frustration people feel for what seem like minor inconveniences to us could be major to others.

This was a quick read and definitely the perfect summer read and romance