{ "item_title" : "Give Me a Sign", "item_author" : [" Anna Sortino "], "item_description" : "In this big-hearted young adult romance, a camp counselor embraces first love and self-acceptance as she finds her place in the Deaf community.Proves love is a universal language.--Kasie West, author of Sunkissed and The Fill-In BoyfriendA beautifully nuanced representation of Deaf culture and what it means to find your voice in a society that doesn't want to listen.--Aiden Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery BoysLilah 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.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/59/353/379/0593533798_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "18.99", "online_price" : "18.99", "our_price" : "18.99", "club_price" : "18.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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Finding the right words can be a challenge for anyone. Lilah, the deaf protagonist in Give Me a Sign (Putnam, $18.99, 9780593533796), is struggling not only with what to say but also how to say it. A sweet and thoughtful romp, Anna Sortino’s debut novel navigates the intricacies of Deaf culture and how one girl finds her place in it.

Consumed by doubts that she’s not “deaf enough” and irked by her hearing parents who are preoccupied with making sure she can pass as hearing, Lilah minimizes herself and what accommodations she needs. Her friends “forget” she can’t hear as well as them, inadvertently leaving her out of conversations or taking her to inaccessible activities.

At the end of her junior year, all Lilah wants is to feel understood like she did when she was at Camp Gray Wolf, a summer camp for blind, deaf and hard-of-hearing kids. Nervous about her rusty American Sign Language but excited to connect more with her Deaf identity, Lilah applies to become a counselor.

What ensues is a summer in the woods with cute boys, late-night shenanigans and more lessons about herself than she ever could have imagined. With lots of summer-ready fun, Give Me a Sign thoughtfully tackles a myriad of coming-of-age tropes through the lens of deaf characters. Sortino’s writing shines the brightest when the story takes a turn toward the harsh realities and traumas that deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals often endure through misunderstandings with the hearing world. Sortino doesn’t shy away from examining cruelty, but her narrative also remains informative, kind and steady. Give Me a Sign is not only a point of representation for folks looking for themselves in a fun read but also a reminder that just because someone can’t hear or speak doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice.