I was a teacher when I awoke one morning to an unnatural silence. The ENT specialist said the rare virus would return and I’d become deaf one day. Six years later he was proven right, and I had to accept disability because I couldn’t understand my students. I took American Sign Language classes at a local community college, and I taught myself to write. I penned six novels; two about deafness. At the turn of the century, I met Jila, an amazing deaf woman. She told me stories about growing up deaf and Jewish in Iran. After her death from colon cancer, I put her stories together and novelized her life in The Lip Reader.
As a deaf man, I’ve run into people who refuse to talk to me because of their prejudices toward deaf people. This includes my own brother, friends, and cousins.
Prejudice in American society is ubiquitous. No one knew this better than Myron Uhlberg’s father, a deaf man. When Branch Rickie decided to break the color barrier in baseball by hiring Jackie Robinson as the starting first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Mr. Uhlberg understood immediately the difficulties the ballplayer would encounter from racist athletes and fans. Though Uhlberg knew nothing about baseball, he became one of Robinson’s adoring fans at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York during the 1947 baseball season.
Myron and his father visited Ebbets Field frequently during Robinson’s rookie year. Author Myron Uhlberg and illustrator Colin Bootman produce an emotionally packed picture book kids can understand and learn about diversity in their award-winning picture book, Dad, Jackie, and Me.
A young boy and his deaf father bond over baseball as they root for Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers to win the pennant.
It was Opening Day, 1947. And every kid in Brooklyn knew this was our year. The Dodgers were going to go all the way!
In the summer of 1947, a highly charged baseball season is underway. The new first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, is the first Black player in Major League Baseball--- and it looks like the team might have what it takes to get to the…
The pandemic ended Deaf bowling and morning breakfasts with Deaf friends. Having more to learn about the culture is why I read Deaf Culture Our Way: Anecdotes from the Deaf Community. Many of the stories recalled things that happened to me since becoming deaf.
Like many deaf people, I feel the dashboard of my car to make sure it has started. At noisy family gatherings I remove my hearing aids for blessed silence. I also capitalize on my deafness when visiting my brother in Atlanta. Before boarding a plane, I let the gatekeeper know I’m deaf and she always lets me on first. (Deafness has its perks.)
If you have a deaf relative, friend, or just interested in Deaf Culture, or learning ASL, read Deaf Culture Our Way: Anecdotes from the Deaf Community. It’s an eye-opener.
Using humorous stories with illustrations, this classic collection brings deaf culture to life through personal experiences and practical day-to-day information. Various aspects of the deaf world are illuminated through anecdotes, updated in this edition to include new stories about the foibles of the latest communication technologies, including VRS, videophones, email, and instant messaging. Also provided is classroom material for teachers that can be used as excellent supplemental reading for deaf studies, ASL, or interpreting classes, as well as a springboard for discussions about deaf culture.
Leah Hager Cohen grows up at the Lexington School for the Deaf, in Queens, New York, even though she has perfect hearing. Her hearing father is the director of childcare and resides with his family in an apartment on the third floor of the building. Leah is surrounded by Deaf Culture and has a feeling, at a young age, she is “missing the boat”—a phrase translated into ASL as “Train go sorry.”
Through Cohen’s experience growing up hearing at a school for the deaf, we get a unique perspective of Deaf Culture. Issues handled are the isolation problems deaf students have with their hearing families and how Deaf Culture is transmitted not by the family but by institutes for the deaf.
I highly recommend Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World to any Deaf person, ASL student, or individual who has a deaf friend or family member. The book is an eye-opener.
A “remarkable and insightful” look inside a New York City school for the deaf, blending memoir and history (The New York Times Book Review).
Leah Hager Cohen is part of the hearing world, but grew up among the deaf community. Her Russian-born grandfather had been deaf—a fact hidden by his parents as they took him through Ellis Island—and her father served as superintendent at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens. Young Leah was in the minority, surrounded by deaf culture, and sometimes felt like she was missing the boat—or in the American Sign Language term, “train go sorry.”…
Twelve-year-old Iris was born deaf to hearing parents. Her mom and brother sign, but her father can’t seem to grasp his daughter’s language. And, instead of enrolling Iris in a school for the deaf, they have her mainstreamed in the public schools with a hired ASL interpreter.
One day she learns about Blue-55, a hybrid blue/fin whale unable to communicate with other whales. Iris feels this whale’s pain. She also has a talent with electronics. Unfortunately, the kids in her middle school classroom think she’s stupid because of her deafness. Little do they know she’s a tech genius.
Moved by Blue-55’s story, Iris is determined to compose a song for the whale at his frequency. Thus begins Lynne Kelly’s novel, Song for a Whale. The book is a beautifully written tale about longing for a connection and finding it in a magical and unexpected place.
A stirring and heart-warming tale of a young deaf girl who is determined to make a difference, the perfect read for fans of Wonder.
Iris was born deaf, but she's never let that define her; after all, it's the only life she's ever known. And until recently she wasn't even very lonely, because her grandparents are both deaf, too. But Grandpa has just died and Grandma's not the same without him. The only place Iris really feels at home anymore is in her electronics workshop where she loves taking apart antique radios.
Whenever I need an ASL translation of an English word or phrase I check Signing Everyday Phrases. It provides the Manual Alphabet and breaks the book into chapters like “Home, Family, and Friends,” “Leisure and Sports,” “Time, Weather, and Holidays,” and a lot more. If you need the sign for a word, check the Index, and you’ll find it there. The book provides pictures of the sign and below that, a printed explanation. If you are learning ASL basics, this book will be a huge help.
“The Lip Reader” tells the story of Zhila Shirazi, an Iranian Jew who, at the age of three, loses hearing in both of her ears as a result of meningitis. Readers soon learn that for Zhila and millions of others worldwide, deafness is often treated as a miserable liability. “In my country of Iran, a disability is a curse,” Zhila says early in the novel. She adds, “People with disabilities in mid-twentieth century Iran were considered tragic and pitiful. Those afflicted were seen as unfit or even feeble-minded and incapable of contributing to society. Their worth was only valued as entertainment in a circus sideshow or as objects of scorn. Many disabled individuals were forced to undergo sterilization so as not to pass disabling genes to their offspring.”
Zhila struggles with deafness her whole life, but always strives to make peace with her disability. The book’s themes of escaping the metaphoric prison of society’s harsh confines, as well as peace with oneself as the ultimate emblem of freedom, is especially inspiring during Passover.
Thal writes in the first person as Zhila, an impressive feat given that, as an Ashkenazi man, he manages to capture the voice of an Iranian Jewish woman with nuance and authenticity. But this achievement is rooted in experience: In real life, Zhila Shirazi (a fictional name) was Thal’s beloved partner of 16 years, a Tehran-born Jewish woman named Jila whom he met in 1999. In 2010, Jila was diagnosed with colon cancer. She passed away in 2015 at age 65, leaving Thal broken with heartache.
Every picture tells a story, but it’s not always the one we expect or remember. Christmas Actually is a festive drama about family and forgiveness and a snapshot of modern family life, addressing Instagram to motherhood and everything in between.
Why Christmas? My publisher wanted my new novel to have a festive theme, specifically set in Australia–sun, surf, sunburn, and prawns. Christmas in Australia is very different from Christmas in the UK, USA, and Canada. We typically wear shorts and t-shirts, eat salad and seafood for Christmas lunch, and play beach cricket in the afternoon. Despite the season, conflicts, secrets,…
Time spent with family can be challenging, especially at Christmas actually…
Kate Cavendish is stuck in a rut. That is until a former colleague contacts her and offers her a chance to fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a successful photographer.
With her focus pulled in all directions by her children, her pregnant sister, her newly-dating mother, and the niggling worry that her husband might be having an affair, Kate is filled with self-doubt.
Then as the countdown to Christmas begins, and memories of her own childhood resurface, Kate’s anxiety deepens – both personally and professionally. Can she move on…
