A leitora atraída por capas fofas e ilustradas ataca novamente, mas dessa vez com o feliz acréscimo de ser, além de um YA, também uma história own voice com representatividade PcD, tanto da comunidade surda quanto com alguns vislumbres bem bacanas sobre deficiência visual junto.

Em Give Me a Sign, acompanhamos Lilah enquanto embarca num verão como conselheira-júnior no Camp Gray Wolf, um acampamento de férias voltado à imersão e atividades para e entre pessoas com algum tipo de deficiência, com foco em surdos, como Lilah, Isaac, Natasha e Ethan, e deficiência visual como com Bobby e Phoebe. É uma leitura que desde o início começa tanto leve quanto firme em seu posicionamento, já mostrando, no dia-a-dia, alguns dilemas da protagonista que, por não ser totalmente surda, se sente numa espécie de limbo entre surda e ouvinte, por vezes nem um nem outro.

Para além de "só" trazer a representatividade em sua gama mais leve e natural, com jovens sendo jovens de fato e não resumidos à um rótulo de deficiência, Give Me a Sign é, ainda, sobre identidade para quem tem deficiência e, seja por um detalhe parricular ou outro, se sente excluído de ambos os "lados" da realidade, levantando o debate sobre o quanto certos casos são ignorados ou não tão levados em consideração se comparados à outros, porque o indivíduo não é surdo o suficiente, pode ouvir um pouco ainda com implantes, não tem perda total de visão, e afins. Leva-nos a refletir sobre as tantas vezes que, mesmo inconscientemente, julgamos alguém por parecer ter ou não uma deficiência só porque ela não atingia critérios, por vezes até estereotipados, que tomamos como verdade.

Esses por si só já foram motivos o bastante para eu me envolver, aos poucos, com a trama e os personagens, e ainda que o plot não tenha muitas reviravoltas em si, o foco na realidade é o que importa aqui. Está mais do que passando da hora de termos histórias que tragam pessoas com deficiência, mas que também se comprometam a mostrá-las em meio à vida cotidiana, em especial na adolescência e seus dramas típicos da fase junto, como ao trazer um pouco de romance no caso da Lilah e do Isaac aqui.

Mesmo sem ser o foco, é um romance que começa sutil e se desenvolve de forma meiga e leve em meio à amizade como um todo deles, em momentos aprendendo mais sobre a Língua Americana de Sinais (ASL), pela qual ele mais se comunica, diferente dela que ainda recorre à fala. Esse é outro ponto bacana da história, ao mostrar que, justamente por poder variar tanto dependendo do grau de surdez, cada um tem sua própria preferência se usar sinais, implantes, aparelhos auditivos ou todos eles juntos, e que nenhum é mais ou menos surdo por isso.

Assim, essa é uma leitura para tanto representar mais da comunidade surda e de deficiência visual, como também para trazer debates principalmente em torno de como, por vezes, quem está de fora dificulta as coisas, sempre esperando que o PcD se adapte à ele e ao mundo, para sua conveniência, e não promovendo a acessibilidade devida e que é direito de todos. Isso fica particularmente claro nos capítulos 22 à 24, em meio à uma situação corriqueira para ouvintes, mas que pode ser um obstáculo e dor de cabeça tão grandes graças à ignorância e capacitismo que por vezes cometemos ou simplesmente aceitamos que existam por aí, em suas mais variadas formas.

Uma leitura para refletir, se divertir, aprender, e se deixar cativar por personagens que, cada qual com sua história, experiências e jeito de ver o mundo, tem muito a nos ensinar, identificar ou simplesmente remeter aos altos e baixos de crescer como um todo, seja tendo ou não uma deficiência, dentro ou fora de uma comunidade específica.

Summer camp is often a refugee for kids and teens who don't fit in during the regular school year. Lilah, who has a big enough hearing deficit to require hearing aids and other accommodations, has fond memories of her years as a camper at Camp Gray Wolf. On a whim she applies to work as a junior counselor at the camp for children with hearing and vision loss. While she feels too Deaf to be in the hearing world, she often feels not Deaf enough to be a part of the Deaf world. She spends the summer working on this and how to navigate in both worlds. Her sweet summer romance has its ups and downs. This is a great summer read with an important look into the Deaf community. Highly recommended for grades 8 & up.

Lilah has had hearing loss her whole life and never felt quite like she fit in with her hearing friends but she also doesn't identify as deaf. After years of feeling this way she decides to become a counselor at the summer camp she visited as kid.

This was a sweet, coming of age book about learning to love yourself just as you are. There were so many lovable characters and Isaac was the best. I would highly recommend!

3.5 rounded up. I love the representation of Deaf culture in this book and it helps that the author is Deaf. I really enjoyed the story, there were just a few times where the pacing felt off. Otherwise, it was a great read!

By the end, Lilah's empowerment to speak up with her hearing friends and her family to be more serious about learning ASL was the cherry on the sundae of this sweet (albeit slow burning) romance summer camp story.

Lilah never feels "Deaf enough" for the Deaf world and tries to be "hearing enough" for the mainstream education and friendships she has. Being stuck in the middle sucks for her and she takes it upon herself to return to the Deaf (and blind) camp that she went to, but this time as a junior counselor where she makes friendships and then a few UK boys who are the lifeguards too. And there's Isaac. Not quite sure if there's a spark, it's a friends to lovers trope set against the backdrop of summer camp exhaustion and shenanigans.

It drags a little in the middle- I would have liked a little more saccharine romance juiciness to push me over the edge of complete adoration but Lilah has an edge that I respected throughout the story.

17-year-old Lilah and her younger brother are hard of hearing. Because they can both get by in the hearing world with hearing aids, their parents have never learned sign language and never given the kids an opportunity to learn it outside of the Deaf summer camp that Lilah used to attend. Lilah has a hard time fitting in with her hearing friends because they don't understand what it's like to need to read lips and use closed captions. When she gets the opportunity to be a junior counselor at her old camp, she jumps at it. Once there, however, she feels like she's not "Deaf enough". She's caught between two worlds and doesn't feel like she really fits in either one.

This book is full of information on Deaf culture and I loved it! The representation of different types of deafness was great, too!

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Wow I really loved this story! As a sign language interpreter, everything was so relatable! I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook, although I thought the signing audio would have been more similar to Tru Biz. I loved experiencing more about Deaf culture through the stories and loved the writing style.

This book needs to be in every single high school. If I was a millionare, I would buy boxes of them and personally hand them to librarians in every single one of the fifty states.

The best part of fiction and non-ficiton stories is what you can learn. That's one of my favorite things about diving into diverse books. What can I learn about the world that surrounds me. What can I do to open my mind and eyes to be more inclusive and respectful.

"Give Me a Sign" is one of the best young adult novels I have read. I learned so much. I never knew how isolating it could be living in a hearing world when you lack that ability. I loved stepping into Lilah's shoes. Following her on her path to appreciate and understand her deafness was a beautiful experience. I loved that she wanted to open her mind and change her life for the better. She gains confidence. She gains knowledge. She gains friendship. It's a remarkable story.

I knew I was loving this story when I found myself looking up signs as they were mentioned throughout the story and literally pausing to do them in real life.

I wanted to join this summer camp by the end.

"Give Me Sign" is a beautiful story. It is a light and sweet read. It has characters you want to hug. It has a setting that gives all the summer vibes you need. It will literally make you want to drop everything to learn sign language.

For anyone who loved True Biz, please pick up this book. You will learn so much about the deaf community through the eyes of a teenager. It's a very unique perpesective that you don't get to experience in a lot of books.

I loved seeing deaf and blind culture being represented. I hope that we see more books for all ages that include sign language in the future.

Thank you Penguin Teen for the advanced reader copy! Give Me a Sign is out in the world now! Go get yourself a copy of this delightful young adult story today!

Give Me a Sign is a YA novel with a deep message and such a fantastic representation of Deaf culture and fitting in with a community and finding love at summer camp. As a hearing reader, I really enjoyed learning about the Deaf community and the language that is appropriate to use and gives the reader a lot to think about and consider by the end.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

4.5/5 stars
This book follows a young deaf girl who doesn’t feel understood and goes to a summer camp for the deaf and blind where she finds herself and love. Sortino is a fantastic writer who knew what type of story they were writing. I could feel all the emotions going into this book as the storyline was very well written. I learned a lot in this book and following Lilah’s story made me feel connected to her. She grew so much in this story and I loved it. The side characters were fun, and I loved the romance development between Lilah and Isaac, a friend-to-lovers trope. The ending was great and overall this story was just amazing. This is perfect for those who love the camp rock aesthetic with Jenny Han’s writing style.

*this e-arc was sent to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return*

This was a beautiful story about a deaf girl just wanting a good summer and finding so much more, I especially loved the characters and the story, I was highly rooting for them!

Lilah is a hard of hearing girl with hearing parents. They sent her to mainstream school and she has hearing friends, relying upon lipreading and hearing aids to function in daily life. The only time she's been exposed to ASL is at the camp for the deaf and blind she went to for a few summers as a kid. Lilah often struggles with feeling "deaf enough" and wonders if she belongs in the Deaf community. When she returns to the camp she went to as a kid as a counselor, her plan is to brush up on her ASL. She's not expecting to make good friends and find love but life has a way of surprising you.

In a lot of ways this is a cute and fluffy summer romance. Lilah deals with the normal struggles of being a teenager. But there's also the backdrop of the struggle of being deaf in a hearing world, depravation of language, and acceptance of disability. Differentiating between sign and spoken English by using italics was super clever. I do think it'd be really cool to see this as a graphic novel.

I was interested in this just from the summary of the novel. I book about Deaf Culture, finding your place in the world and in your community. I was wrapped up. I want to thank Net Galley, Penguine Group, and Anna Sortino for allowing me to have an e-arc of this for an honest review.

Lilah's journey goes beyond being a teenager trying to find her place in the world. Lilah is also trying to find her place among both the hearing and Deaf communities. When she doesn't fit into either fully. However, at Camp Gray Wolf she fits in despite these differences. She's able to be included with others who are also a part of the Deaf community. This involvement in the camp was amazing to watch because you could tell that not only was Lilah becoming more confident in herself but she was also becoming more confident with who she is.

On a more technical side of things, I was extremely happy to see that Anna utilized blank space for words that Lilah didn't pick up or italics for sign and utilizing the grammar for some of the sign was great too. I think it was a perfect opportunity to talk about the differences and the things that people do when they are around different people. I also found the interaction with 100% hearing individuals to be interesting, in a thought-provoking way that allows you to really think about how we as able (talking about myself here) bodied individuals sometimes make others work just as hard to be a small part of the conversation when we could be making an equal effort.

More than anything this is a great novel, while yes, it is YA and Teen, I would absolutely say this has a place in a classroom as a piece that we use to show how we can all be working toward a middle ground instead of making others feel left out.

This book is a such a beautiful and unique story of finding your place in a world and making yourself heard when the world is clearly shutting you out and think of you as something needed to be fixed. This book is also about Deaf representation, written in a unique way: the description of ASL is amazing in the book, easy to understand and learn too if you want to!

Being a lighthouse for many disabled young teens and an example for non-disabled ones how to listen to them, this book is perfect for merging two worlds into one, teaching us more of Deaf community and joy.

Moreover, Give Me A Sign is such a fun and cute story about love, family, friendship, endless summer nights and new beginnings! ✨

Give Me a Sign Follows Lilah who is hard of hearing and she always finds herself in the in-between. She is too Deaf for the hearing or not Deaf enough. Until she becomes a jr counselor at gray wolf summer camp for the Deaf and Blind where she attended as a kid. Lilah hopes to learn more about ASL and Deaf culture. And maybe have a summer romance.

This book is beautifully written, Anna Sortino is an amazing author. Although this books did take me longer to finish than normal but after about 25% I was hooked and couldn't put it down.

I loved the characters, they were all funny and especially the young campers. This is honestly a great summer read. Friends to Lovers. I recommend this book for everyone to read.

I want to thank Netgalley and the publishes for letting me read Give Me a Sign I for a honest review.

this was such a cute friends to lovers YA romance. i absolutely adored the deaf representation that was presented in the characters. this book definitely tugged at my heart strings more than i had expected! lilah was such a beautiful person and character… i found her struggle to identify as being deaf emotional. as someone who has a chronic illness, i could relate to that. this book has great insight into deaf culture as well!

it reminded me of a course i took in undergrad called Disabilities in Film. we watched movies that portrayed a plethora of disabilities and did a deep dive on accuracy, stereotypes etc. when we got to deaf culture, we watched some law and order episodes, coda, and sound and fury! all of which i highly recommend. (just like this book🙂)

Thank you to netgalley for my advanced copy of this book!

I liked the premise and the deaf culture and I think it had so much potential, but unfortunately for me, the characters fell a little flat. I loved the author’s acknowledgments at the end and I think it’s an important and beautiful story she told, I don’t want to diminish the rep in this book- I’d still highly recommend it.

The camp was a fun setting as well. I just wish the characters felt a little more developed. I also would’ve liked to have seen the relationship with her brother more because I feel like we didn’t get enough of them together.

This heartfelt story is about not feeling like you fit the mold yet you’re perfect the way you are and you fit in perfectly. It definitely gives a voice to the deaf community and how they can interact with those around them. I love summer camp stories probably because I never got to experience it as a kid myself, but this story made me feel like I was right there with them going through the emotions.

Definitely a thought provoking read that all should check out, especially if they know someone or just want to connect with the aspect of someone who’s deaf.

Thank you for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel! It was a very intriguing read. I loved how you got to glimpse into the daily life and struggles that the deaf community faces. I also thoroughly enjoyed reading the budding romance between Lilah and Issac. I was captivated by this read from the very beginning and I would definitely recommend this novel!

Seeing hearing aids on the cover made me want to read this book and I'm so glad I did! I know little about Deaf culture from school, tv shows, friends, and some of my own research after finding out my son is HOH. I know there is so much more to learn but I'm just so excited to see YA stories with this kind of representation.

Lilah feels stuck. She's not hearing enough or deaf enough. I understood some of her frustrations but there were so many other things I had not thought of. I also enjoyed the different aspects and glimpses into other people's experiences with their identity in the Deaf world. I loved how she was able to learn from her friends and campers to explore her identity and speak up for herself.

Super cute story and I can't wait to get a copy for my classroom library!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.