On the Odd Hours

On the Odd Hours (Louvre Collection), Eric Liberge
Reading level: Ages 9-12

Paperback: 71 pages
Publisher: ComicsLit (April 2010)
ISBN-10: 1561635774

Bastien is deaf and uses sign language to communicate.
From Booklist
Like Nicolas Crecy’s Glacial Period (2007) and Marc-Antoine Mathieu’s The Museum Vaults (2008), the third Louvre-sponsored graphic novel is a fantasy, though set in the present, not the future. A guard accosts burly young Bastien—head shaved except for a forelock and goatee—eating within the hallowed gallery. Conveying that he is deaf, Bastien scribbles a note explaining he has an appointment there. Humiliated, he stomps off before his story’s fully checked. But a wizened Chinese man signs to him. The old man, a guard himself and also deaf, is the person Bastien had to meet all along. He expects Bastien to succeed him in watching over the souls of the artworks, which escape canvas, stone, and metal during the odd hours of deep night. Despite misgivings and his girlfriend’s overbearing caretaking, Bastien decides the job’s the perfect fit for him. Virtuosically rendered by Liberge, who merges elegant clear-line figuration, expressionistic pastel coloration, and in the odd-hours sequences, superimposition effects, Bastien’s story powerfully expresses the frustrations of deep hearing impairment and the irrepressible life of great art. --Ray Olson

Broken Voices

I just came across this book today and look forward to reading it. Be sure to visit the author's website.

Broken Voices, Winona Rasheed

Reading level: Young Adult

Paperback: 68 pages
Publisher: New Line Press (June 23, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1892851326

Main character Ella uses sign language and speaks to communicate
Product Description
Moving from one city to another as a freshmen student attending a new high school has its qualms. However, the situation becomes even more difficult and intense when the new student has a secret that she tries to hide from her classmates. 13-year-old Ella Rose from Savannah Georgia appears to be normal at one glance, until she speaks or tries to communicate. Unlike everyone else at Manchester High School in Washington DC, Ella Rose Abbot is different, and it will take more than the standard school uniform to make her feel that she fits in and belongs with the rest of the students, despite her secret. However, as Ella finds out, some situations are not easily hidden, turning one small bad situation into a mountain of chaotic problems as you try to hide the obvious. Broken Voices is an encouraging story that takes you inside a different world, the world of the handicapped and people with broken voices and impaired hearing. Editorial Review: "Ella Rose Abbot begins her first day of high school full of self-doubt and then triumphs over the day. Ella, a deaf girl, signs, writes, and speaks with "a broken voice," as it turns out, very beautifully. "Broken Voices" is a story that will lift you up and make you feel better about the world." --Kris Harpster