Not all the books that arrived at my house this spring and summer from publishers were advance readers copies; this one from Scholastic is already available for sale:
Ann Clare LeZotte did her research before writing Show Me a Sign, a historical fiction novel based in the 1800's on Martha's Vineyard in New England. Ms LeZotte is deaf, and was intrigued when she learned about a Deaf community from that period. Because a large percentage of people were deaf by heredity, the entire village used sign language to communicate, hearing or not.
LeZotte skillfully weaves Deafness through her depiction of the island in the 1800s. There is a grieved loss; racial and cultural tensions run high among English, Wampanoag, freedmen, and Irish; and land disputes are played out between Native Americans and settlers, even generations after landing. In this setting, LeZotte gives us Mary Lambert, a Deaf girl descended from the founder of her village, born to a Deaf father and hearing mother. Mary tends to focus on the similarities among people instead of their differences, even as she is acutely aware of the latter. When a scientist arrives from England intent on finding out why so many of the village inhabitants inherited Deafness, Mary learns that many outsiders see that difference as a disability, a concept she's never considered.
The dust jacket blurb hints that Mary will soon be personally involved in the scientist's research...but I'm not quite there yet. I am enjoying Mary's narration in Show Me a Sign, and quickly became used to LeZotte's choice to denote the interpretation of signing in the usual methods for dialogue.
It's Monday, and I'm reading historical fiction that has me thinking about our current societal attitudes toward Deafness, as well as my own feelings. Is Deafness a disability, or difference? One denotes inescapable dependence/ less than, the other a facet of a diverse world/ the same as. Mary has me thinking it's the latter.
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