Years ago, I visited a school for the deaf to see how the children learn to read. It opened my eyes: It is exceedingly difficult to learn to read a language you cannot hear. I am a linguist and a writer for children. So this experience lit a fire under me – I wanted to learn about the deaf experience, sign languages, and what sorts of ways I might be able to support the effort to learn to read. I now analyze sign languages, work with a team to advocate for deaf children’s language rights, and am co-director of the RISE project, producing videobooks for deaf children and their families.
I wrote...
In a Flash
By
Donna Jo Napoli
What is my book about?
You may have read a lot about World War II, but maybe not what happened on Japanese soil. This is the story of Italian sisters who are living with their father in Tokyo. At the start of the book, Italy and Japan are on the same side of the war. But when Italy changes sides, their father is taken away and these sisters struggle to survive without him. They have to find the courage to face harrowing dangers and they have to muster resourcefulness to overcome them, all while the society around them is disintegrating. They never could have succeeded without the compassion of an unlikely series of heroic strangers, from a blind woman to three misfit women to a German priest.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Inside Deaf Culture
By
Carol Padden,
Tom Humphries
Why this book?
This book looks at the history of hearing people’s attitudes toward deaf people and sign languages in America over the past two centuries, and how those attitudes and the social institutions that stem from them have affected the ways deaf people see themselves. Despite the suppression of their language, deaf signers managed to keep American Sign Language alive through clubs and theater. Today, sign languages have achieved recognition of their full status as natural human languages.
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Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood
By
Paddy Ladd
Why this book?
This book gives the British side of things, focusing on the division between viewing deafness as a medical condition (a deficiency) and viewing it as a cultural condition (which leads to the birth of sign languages). This book asks what a culture is, truly, and shows how cultures grow up around deaf signing communities.
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Deaf Culture: Exploring Deaf Communities in the United States
By
Irene Leigh,
Jean Andrews,
Raychelle Harris,
Topher Gonzáles Ávila
Why this book?
The authors explore the complexity of deaf identities, looking at race, sexual behavior/orientation, disability, and the range of different experiences deaf people have, from being born into a family that signs to not even learning about sign languages until they are (nearly) adults.
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Fighting in the Shadows: Untold Stories of Deaf People in the Civil War
By
Harry G. Lang
Why this book?
Deaf people served as soldiers, nurses, cooks, even spies during the American Civil War. This book celebrates their bravery and how they applied their skills to fight for what they believed in.
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The Deaf Way II Anthology: A Literary Collection by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Writers
By
Tonya M. Stremlau
Why this book?
This has poetry, essays, short stories, and a play, all by internationally acclaimed deaf writers. These give you a starting point. From there, you need to take a sign language course and start watching videos of deaf poems, stories, and jokes. What a grand world of wonder awaits you!
