When I saw this on Netgalley I was so excited because it sounded like a book I would like and it was about deaf characters which I've never read about before.

I really enjoyed reading about deaf characters. It was interesting and educational, especially on how inaccessible some things are, like drive-throughs. I loved how when the characters were signing, the text was italic, and also sometimes there were descriptions of the sign (and I knew some because I follow some deaf creators).

However, the plot was kind of boring. Conflicts happened and then were solved and it just felt repetitive. Also, the characters were sort of underdeveloped in my opinion. I think there were just a bit too many of them for a 300-page book. The main character Lilah had also no real personality other than feeling out of place in the hearing world and the deaf one. I wish there would've been a bit more development, I think I would've enjoyed the characters more.

As for the romance, I thought it was cute that their sign names were Spider and Bug, but it felt bland. Very insta-lovey. They were at the camp for 2 months, yet it didn't feel that way chemistry-wise. It read very young which didn't make sense since they're supposedly 17/18.

Overall, not as great as I expected but I really enjoyed reading an own-voices book and I would recommend this for the deaf representation, but not really for the plot itself.

this book was an amazing insight and representation into the Deaf community. it was a beautiful story of a girl struggling to find her place and identify herself, and i learnt a lot along the way as well!!

thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read an advanced readers copy :)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this as an arc from NetGalley. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!! I 100% recommend this book!! I just wanted to say that Anna Sortino did an amazing job!!

I relate to this book so much!! I am hard of hearing and I do wear hearing aids. I relate to Lilah so much! I totally understand where she is coming from when she says that she feels like she doesn’t belong in the hearing world but she also feels like she doesn’t feel belong in the deaf world either. Lilac decided to be a junior counselor at the Deaf summer camp that she used to go to when she was younger. She fell in love with Isaac who was a counselor at the summer camp. Isaac helped her learn American Sign Language (ASL). By the end of the book Lilah had learned to identify with being Deaf and to not be afraid.

This is such a sweet summer read, and I definitely will be purchasing to put into my class library. I loved the representation of deaf culture, and as a hearing reader, I found this to be an accessible introduction to the deaf community.

This book is such a sweet read that really shows the perspective of a deaf person really well since the author is also deaf. As a note, I am neither dead or hard of hearing, so it was really insightful to learn more about the community from someone who is a part of it. I loved the representation and how deaf/vision-lost people were the main characters. I think it was so important to have characters like Mackenzie present because it provided a real teaching moment for hearing people reading this book to know how to handle themselves better. Aside from the amazing representation, the story was so cute! I thought Lilah was really trying to figure out who she was and where she fit in - all so hard when you are 17! I think the book showed her age perfectly where she made mistakes, but also really grew as a person. Issac was the same way. Navigating life as a teen/young adult is hard enough without the experience of being deaf and I think this book showed all of it so well. I like how it ended and really just enjoyed this read. Some transitions were a little rocky, especially with small time jumps, but the emotional scene was done so well! Really a worthwhile read! 4⭐️, 0.5🌶

this book was so sweet and perfect for the summer! i also am not more informed and knowledgable about the deaf community and it was really interesting to learn about. the summer camp vibe is perfect for summer and the romance fits perfectly with the main idea of the story. this was a quick and easy read!

GIVE ME A SIGN is the perfect summer read, following Lilah’s return to her childhood summer camp, now as a junior counselor. The story is a great introduction to the Deaf Community and about finding yourself through a community, and what that’s like when you feel completely stuck between two worlds.

As an audiobook listener, I loved the way the production interpreted moments where Lilah’s was missing communication, as well as the additional sounds to background the signing dialogue, the same way TRUE BIZ did. It made the experience even more immersive and accessible, and an all around joy to listen to. I loved this one dearly, and I can’t wait to read what else the author has in store!

Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino is a book I think everyone should read & experience. This is the perfect summer read ripe with the adventure of summer camp, full of teenage angst & romance & tied together with community, growth & love. My favorite part about this book is the fact it has lots of incredible disability representation & takes place at a summer camp for the Deaf & Blind.

I am disabled & I always appreciate the chance to gain more education, understanding & experience about other disabilities. This book did a wonderful job of sharing how being hard of hearing can often feel stuck between the hearing world & the Deaf community. The variety of summer campers & counselors displayed a range of disabilities, which I think is vital. This was a great introduction to Deaf culture as well as just a lovely story of all a young adult balancing a job, summer camp, life changes & the quintessential summer romance with all the vibes that come with it. If you no longer get to go to summer camp, this gives the best kind of nostalgia & memories of it.

It’s cleverly nuanced in the ways for which it displays different types of ableism in society & how that affects the disabled community. It brought forth a realistic situation in regard to the safety & security of disabled people in public, which is scarily put in jeopardy. I think this book did a brilliant job of allowing the reader the opportunity to realistically experience the world through the viewpoint of a disabled person, which includes the pain, the complexity, the confusion, but also the mundane, the joy, the humor, the support & of course, the love.

This is the type of stories the world needs more of & I will cherish the fact that I was able to read it. I sincerely hope that there is more on the way.


Massive thanks to NetGalley & G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for the gifted arc, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Lilah has always struggled with her identity; she has hearing loss but doesn’t feeling “deaf enough” to identify as Deaf, but she’s also not hearing enough to fit into the world’s expectations. But this summer, Lilah wants to change.

When she gets accepted to be a junior camp counselor at the Deaf and Blind Summer Camp she went to as a kid, she’s excited to brush up on her American Sign Language (ASL). Once there, she finds the community she’s been searching for, and then some. Like the two British lifeguards, an Interpreting Student YouTuber who’s just a little too desperate for views, the campers Lilah’s responsible for (including one who’s practically glues to Lilah’s leg), and the dreamy Deaf counselor helping Lilah with her signing.

Romance wasn’t ever on the agenda for the summer, especially since Lilah isn’t positive Isaac likes her the same way. Everything points to yes, but maybe Lilah is reading the signs wrong?

I’m always curious to read books with Deaf or Hard of Hearing characters, especially written by authors within the Deaf Community. I’ve studied American Sign Language (I have a Minor in ASL), but I am nowhere near fluent, and unfortunately I don’t always have the ability to practice as much as I would like. There weren’t books with Deaf or Hard of Hearing characters as a main character while I was growing up, so I read them any chance I got.

This book gives a lot of insight to the Deaf Community and what it’s like for those with a range of hearing loss. Of course, cochlear implants were discussed for a variety of reasons, including someone from a Deaf family getting one (a lot within the community frown upon the procedure). There is also an incident with someone who is Deaf who has a confrontation with the police.

This book will be high up on my list for recommendations, especially those who enjoyed books like The Words in my Hands by Asphyxia, The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais, and True Bix by Sara Nović.

4.5/5*s
Thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC!
This book was super cute & I absolutely loved reading it. I don't know a whole lot about deaf culture but thought the book did a really good job of representing it. It was a little slow in certain spots. I thought the character development in this book was really good and would have liked to see more of a development with Blake. Absolutely adored the characters and the story overall!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for this arc!

Unfortunately, I am DNFing it about 20% in. To me, the writing style just didn't match my preferences and it was hard to get through. Although, this book has wonderful representation and if the author's voice is a style you enjoy, I'm sure you will really like this book!

- Oh, GIVE ME A SIGN is so lovely. I adored being at Camp Gray Wolf with Lilah as she worked to figure out how she wanted to approach life with a disability.
- The varying experiences of the kids at the camp show just how broad a term "deaf" is, and the book gets into the many nuances of Deaf culture, which was so wonderful to see in a YA novel.
- As a hearing person reading this book, it really struck home for me how exhausting moving through everyday interactions with hearing loss can be. The book wasn't delicate about any it, ranging from how Lilah's hearing friends and family didn't do super basic things to accomodate her, all the way up to a terrifying interaction with police who didn't understand either.

A really cute YA book! Definitely had me thinking about the ways I interact with people who do have a disability.

I felt as though a lot happened in the book concerning different sorts of conflict that our MC faced. So many things were being thrown at me and it felt like I was on some sort of carnival ride that spins and people were throwing things at me??? I understood why they were in there - if it was for the purpose of providing awareness but it may have been better to be selective and really flesh those other issues out.

✨ 4 STARS ✨

“it’s not hearing loss - it’s Deaf gain.”

this was a super easy, sweet teen summer romance. lilah is a seventeen year old girl living in a hearing world, struggling with her identity on the world of disabilities. she is too deaf for some, and not deaf enough for others.

lilah attends camp gray wolf, a summer camp for teens with hearing and visual impairments. here she practices her ASL and gains confidence in herself and who she is. she meets new friends with similar experiences who understand her and her struggles, and has a sweet summer romance with a boy named isaac who communicates solely through sign.

i would spend my entire summer perfecting another language to communicate with a cute curly haired dominican baseball player too, so i get it

this was an adorable, quick summer read. it’s perfect for the young adult + teen audiences and also has a lot of insight on the deaf community, which i really appreciated and enjoyed to read about.

This was one of the best YA books I have ever read. I loved everything about this book. Lilah is such a great main character and I felt so connected to her while reading. This was incredible!

“I know who I am. I don't need to be more hearing or prove my deafness.
I can bring both worlds together. Just being myself, I'm complete.”

God I have no words to express how amazing this book was!

This was such a wonderful story that opened the boarders to a conversation that I didn’t know there was more to. I loved educating myself in this topic and I’m very excited to continue my studies in ASL.

I loved how flawed Lilah was but I also loved how she was very passionated about stuff, I can’t imagen what being deaf is like but I couldn’t speak English when I first got to the USA and I remember those barriers. I do wish we had seen more of her friendships and Isaac but again it was such a good story.

Truly the romance of the year! What an incredible story

I got an ARC of this book.

This is the second book with a Deaf character I have read this year. Everything the last book got wrong (looking at you Babysitters Club), this book got right. The character that even tried to be like the other book was shut down repeatedly. It is not surprising a book by a Deaf author is going to do better on this.

I loved the camp. I loved how the kids got to be themselves. Summer camp is often not accessible for a lot of kids, so seeing these kids get to actually enjoy their summer was amazing. Add in that the counselors wanted to be there, it wasn’t just a job. That camp is lifechanging.

The MC was a great lead for this book. She was learning so much about Deaf culture with the reader that it wasn’t like the reader was being lectured, even when it was clear I was. She was just being allowed to experience her world. She had been denied that by her parents, who listened to doctors (and I am not going to start my rant about doctors who think “fixing” someone is more important than autonomy, accessibility, or support). The kids ranged in support needs, because not every Deaf person experiences the world the same. Things I shouldn’t have to be happy to see in a book, but this is wildly new for fiction it seems.

Most of the plots were the same basic save the summer camp plots. There was romance. There were fundraisers. There were camp games. It was a basic summer camp story, but the campers were Deaf. I could have done without the plot to the love interest at the grocery store. It felt too much for the story. I can see why it was added, it also helped show how awful the one side character was for faking being Deaf to get creepy guys away from her. But it just didn’t fit the summer camp, fun in the sun, coming of age vibe the rest of the book had. Plus, I didn’t want to see bad things happen to Isaac. He is so sweet and I want the best for him all the time.

Overall, this was a really fun book. It had Deaf culture 101, a small taste of blind accessibility, and a cute romance to boot. My main complaint being that the same joke was used a over and over in the beginning doesn’t compare to everything else.

I have been looking for titles with characters with disabilities, particularly deafness, for a long time. It is unfortunately hard to find Deaf main characters or novels that aren't contrived, pitying, or unrelatable to students. This one has it ALL -- a dimensional and thoughtful MC, a sweet summer love story, and addresses many issues Deaf people face. I will absolutely be adding this to my library! To me Give Me a Sign does for Deaf culture what Dear Martin did for Black culture -- Dear Martin has a beautifully written, thoughtful, compelling MC and also addresses many issues people of color face and Give Me a Sign has an equally beautifully written and compelling MC and addresses so many issues Deaf people face. This one is a can't miss.

This YA novel was such an eye opening story told in a very relatable way. Everything I expected from being at summer camp (meeting new people, having new experiences, wanting to go back to familiarity, and falling in love) was there but this added the entire layer of deaf representation and how things can be very different for each individual person put in the same environment. There were so many ways of communication happening all at the same time which was so fun to read and almost experience as if the reader was there. The supermarket portion of the book made me completely anxious and frustrated for the characters but it is reality for the deaf community. Overall, this was a good read for a different point of view and for the summer.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the ARC, this is a voluntary honest review.

The summer camp, this story helped the girl gain self-confidence and understand that she is who she is. This book is full of nice characters, helpful people, warm thoughts. also this book awakened in me memories of childhood, summer and summer camp. It was a good slow-burn romance, that was absolutely adorable, wonderful and cute. there were hard moments in this book there were also very sweet carefree moments that melted my heart I highly recommend this book to everyone and will re-read it in the future. Also, I really like this pretty cover.