Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Deaf Character Books Recommended by Readers

These books were recommended by Blog Readers. I haven't read either of these books and just put them in my Amazon Cart. Enjoy!

Between, Georgia (2006)by Joshilyn Jackson
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Reading Level: Adult but appropriate for Mature Teens
There's always been bad blood between the Fretts and the Crabtrees. After all, the Fretts practically own the tiny town of Between, Georgia, while the Crabtrees only rent space in its jail cells.
Stacia Frett is a deaf artist with a genetic condition
(SPW Note: Usher's Syndrome) that is causing her to slowly go blind. She's lost the love of her life, and when her vision goes, she'll lose her career as well. She's asking God why He keeps her breathing in and out, until the night fifteen year old Hazel Crabtree shows up on her doorstep brandishing a stomach swollen with a pregnancy she'd hidden for nine months. Stacia thinks Hazel's unwanted baby might be God's answer, and so the Fretts decide to steal it...
Thirty years later, Nonny Frett is a successful interpreter living in Athens, Georgia. She understands the meanings of "rock" and "hard place" better than any woman ever born. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two men; Her husband is easing out the back door and her best friend is laying siege to her heart in her front yard. She has a job that holds her in the city, and she's addicted to a little girl who's stuck deep in the country. And she has two families; The Fretts, who stole her and raised her right, and the Crabtrees, who lost her and can't forget that they've been done wrong.
In Between, Georgia, population 90, the feud that began before Nonny was born is escalating, and a random act of violence will set the torch to a thirty-year old stash of highly flammable secrets. This might be just what the town needs, if only Nonny wasn't sitting in the middle of it...

The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms (1978)by Jane Yolen & Laura Rader
Hardcover: 112 pages
Publisher: Collins World
Reading level: Ages 9-12

A mermaid who cannot speak is banished from her undersea home and sent to live on land as a human where she is found by a 12-year-old deaf girl.


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