I absolutely adored the various aspects, emotions, and the journey I went on with Anna Sortino's 'Give Me a Sign'

Lilah's character goes through so much development in the 320 pages of this story and I could have read 200 more if it meant watching her grow. It really is such an easy read that exposes you to Deaf culture, the identity struggles both HOH and CODA kids go through, and ASL as a whole.

Love love love. Can't say enough good about it. 5 lovey dovey summer camp and representation filled stars.

Thank you so much Penguin group and Netgalley for this e-arc!

I have always loved the idea of sign language. The ability to talk with one's hands and body is intriguing. But I never had a reason to learn beyond the alphabet. However, a friend of mine had a daughter born deaf, and that brings the community just one step closer. I also have a friend from high school who became a sign language interpreter. I have no idea what led him to this career path, but I have gone to him more than once with questions for my other friend—all that to say why I was interested in this book.

Obviously, I've never been deaf or hard of hearing. I don't know anyone who is personally besides my friend's daughter. So I can't speak to the experiences that anyone else might have had. And I want to be careful in the wording of what I'm trying to say. One thing I have learned is that emotions happen to us. We don't choose which emotions we feel. Emotions are triggered by thoughts that we have though, and we do have control over our thoughts. We can choose to let a thought linger in our minds. We can expand upon it, dwell upon it. And we can even decide that a specific idea doesn't suit us or fit with our values and decide to change our thoughts. Changing our thoughts can trigger different emotions. Sometimes we can think very similar thoughts, but a perspective change allows us to feel differently. This is called "metacognition" which basically means thinking about our thinking. I say all of that to say that I didn't always agree with Lilah's thoughts and thus her feelings.

1) Lilah assigns motivation to hearing people who use ASL when she can't possibly know someone's heart. I know sometimes people's motives are quite clear even if not expressly stated. But she struggles with Mackenzie's character so much, which I'll discuss more later. But she says, "I don't want people to assume my less-than-perfect signing skills means I'm just another hearing person trying to use ASL for clout." And another character, Natasha, says (but Lilah agrees), "It's not fair she gets this many followers when Deaf creators have to work so hard." And then later Natasha says, "Lessons should come from within the Deaf community in order to be accurate and properly reflect Deaf culture, not from hearing people..."

You can't know someone's motivations for wanting to learn ASL any more than their motivation to learn any other language. Obviously, Mackenzie was in the wrong to portray herself as an expert or a teacher when she is very much a student. But what would be wrong about Mackenzie using her YouTube channel to teach once she becomes fluent in the language? We wouldn't require all teachers of Spanish to be native Spanish speakers, or further, native Spaniards. Someone doesn't have to be born into a culture to be an expert on it or to teach it. We have professors that teach about ancient historical societies, but we don't fault them for this because they didn't live in the right location or period of time. We can even liken this to Eminem infiltrating the rap game back in the early 2000s. He took on a culture that many would say wasn't his to infiltrate. Some people call this cultural appropriation, but I don't view it that way. So the idea that interpreters or teachers need to be deaf seems preposterous to me. And also, shouldn't we want as many people as are interested to learn sign language? No matter what the reason for wanting to do so? And where do all of the hearing parents who love their children with all their hearts fit into this? Not to mention the siblings who might be hearing and grow up learning ASL right alongside their deaf/hard-of-hearing sibling. I know my friend's son has interpreted for his sister among kids who are hearing because he's learning almost as quickly as she is. Obviously, there is a difference between learning for exploitation and learning for a desire to communicate. I only zero in on this because the only hearing person in this book that uses ASL without being on the hearing loss spectrum is Mackenzie who is looked down upon throughout the entire book.

2) Having never been in the shoes of a deaf/HOH person, I can't tell anyone who is what their experience is or should be. Similar to point number one, people who misunderstand your diagnosis are not necessarily malicious, intending to put down, or to offend. The entire conversion around 44% is, I'm 100% sure, an indication of perhaps frequent interactions with "hearies", as hearing people are called more than once in this book. Obviously, Bill and his wife were morons. But I don't think they were malicious morons. And Lilah is even annoyed that they don't seem to know the term "audiologist." I've harped on this before, but we can't be mad at the world for not knowing everything there is to know about our unique condition or medical diagnosis. Do you know how many "weird" diagnoses there are in the world? Even common ones like Type 1 Diabetes have so many misconceptions, and the only people who understand the disease are those who live with it or are intimately acquainted with it or are doctors or nurses themselves. I have a rare uterine condition, but I'm not angry about people asking me about it or not understanding what it is or the effects that it has had upon me. And I don't think the majority of people I encounter are horrible people because they don't understand. They are simply uninformed.

Lilah specifically says about this conversation that "Bill doesn't realize he just said that he doesn't want his grandson to become someone like me." Insensitive? Sure. 100%. Malicious? No. I know plenty of people who wouldn't hope for their grandchildren to have a diagnosis of Down syndrome or autism. But once they have received those diagnoses, they've seen joys and blessings that only could have come from their grandchildren (or children) being exactly as they are. Does this mean that Bill is an evil, hate-filled person? Not at all. Uninformed? Yes. Does Bill need to change? Maybe. But Bill doesn't know what he doesn't know. Who carries the burden of this situation? The person who has the knowledge. Is that fair? Probably not. But what else are you going to do about it? You can't educate the entire population. Since you can't change the thoughts or knowledge that others have, you are responsible for your thoughts towards those people and how those thoughts cause specific emotions to rise within you. Change your thoughts, and thus change your emotions.

3) "It's not long ago that "deaf and dumb" was the actual label. The incorrect assumption that those who use a visual form of communication aren't as intelligent." Say what? Dumb comes from Old English and literally means "silent". The 19th century is when dumb began to take on any connotation towards lacking intelligence. The phrase "deaf and dumb" would literally conjure in my mind someone who can't hear or speak. And many deaf people choose not to speak. The assumption that the character is making here that people assume deaf people are lacking in intelligence may be true of individuals, but no way should this assumption be applied to the whole of hearing humanity.

I was sad over the conversation that Lilah had with her mother about Max's potential need for a cochlear implant. Max is eleven at the time and has been immersed in the hearing world and not given much exposure to the deaf community or culture. My friend who became an interpreter said you wouldn't believe the number of parents who make no effort to learn sign language. And this breaks my heart. For the kids and the parents. Obviously learning a new language isn't going to be easy, but isn't the ability to communicate with your child worth the effort? I know my friend is struggling to learn ASL as quickly as her daughter who now goes to a school for the deaf, but she's putting in the effort. Communicating with her daughter is a priority. And I don't know that faulting Max's parents for wanting him to have the implant is wrong either. Of course, Lilah's point was that Max shouldn't be consulted, and ultimately in the book he was.

4) "People like to watch me. One time someone took a video of me and my mom talking. When I go places, they watch like I'm an animal at the zoo." This is another example of assigning motivation. In this case, Isaac is the one "talking." I know it can't feel good to be stared at, but you don't know people's hearts most of the time. You can't know why they are staring or even videoing. We assume the worst about people. But the truth is that we just can't know what other people feel in their hearts or think in their heads. And if we can't know without them telling us, then it's better (for us and for them) to assign them pure and positive motivations rather than evil or negative ones.

I did love this quote: "Miscommunication is a fact of life. We just have to deal with it more often than most people."

I have had a lot to say about the portrayal of the character's attitudes in this book that I can't say that I liked or appreciated. The last thing I'll say about that is that even in the author's note at the end, the author talks about how she didn't see representation of characters like herself in the books she read growing up. I've touched on this before in this Discussions Only We Know post about diversity. Anna Sortino saw a gap in her reading experiences where there were no characters that represented her experiences. And she went out and wrote that book. I give her kudos for that. Instead of simply complaining about the lack, she stepped into the gap and provided what was missing. I will definitely be on the lookout for a future release because I enjoyed the actual story even when I struggled with the characters' mindset. (You can tell the mindset comes from the author instead of the main character because the same thought process seems to be shared by every other major character and not challenged by supporting characters at all.)

After I've dissected all of the character's perspectives that I took issue with, I do have to say that I actually enjoyed the story. I liked Lilah's seeking to find herself and where she fits in within the community and how she straddles the line between hearing and deaf. I liked Isaac and understood his hesitancy to get to know Lilah when she wasn't able to communicate with him as easily. But I loved that he worked with her to teach her more signs so that she could communicate with him and others easier. I loved that Lilah worked so hard at it. I loved the approach she took with Blake to get her to open up to the idea of signing and learning. I even liked the ending which isn't sad exactly but also isn't your typical happily ever after. Overall, I truly did enjoy Give Me a Sign.

Favorite quote:
-Sometimes there's purpose to being in the middle.

Give Me a Sign gets 3 Stars. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading and not wanting to put it down. But the perspective of the characters was a struggle for me and took my rating down. Have you read Give Me a Sign? What did you think? Let me know!

What a great view of the struggles and challenges that people who are deaf or hearing impaired face every day, expertly written into a story about summer camp and the struggle with relationships that everyone goes through. It also highlights the positives of learning American Sign Language for everyone, not just those who need to use it. ASL provides communication for those who need it and as a society we are leaving out a portion of the population because it is not readily known. It opened my eyes to this fact and the limited accommodations that are provided for those who are deaf or hearing impaired. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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.