Give Me a Sign
Ratings11
Average rating4.2
Jenny Han meets CODA in this big-hearted YA debut about first love and Deaf pride at a summer camp. Lilah is stuck in the middle. At least, that’s what having a hearing loss seems like sometimes—when you don’t feel “deaf enough” to identify as Deaf or hearing enough to meet the world’s expectations. But this summer, Lilah is ready for a change. When Lilah becomes a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind, her plan is to brush up on her ASL. Once there, she also finds a community. There are cute British lifeguards who break hearts but not rules, a YouTuber who’s just a bit desperate for clout, the campers Lilah’s responsible for (and overwhelmed by)—and then there’s Isaac, the dreamy Deaf counselor who volunteers to help Lilah with her signing. Romance was never on the agenda, and Lilah’s not positive Isaac likes her that way. But all signs seem to point to love. Unless she’s reading them wrong? One thing’s for sure: Lilah wanted change, and things here . . . they're certainly different than what she’s used to.
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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.
Content warnings:
- Ableism- Police violence
