Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy by Bill Wise

(Also posted on my blog Hearing Sparks. To enter to win a copy of this book, head over to my post there and leave a comment.)  

Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy is by Bill Wise (illustrations by Adam Gustavson). It takes us through the life of William Hoy. William, or "Dummy" as he actually came to prefer to be called (the term was acceptable in the 19th century), was deafened by a bout with meningitis in his childhood.

Hoy never gave up on his dream of playing baseball in the major leagues. This book vividly describes his experiences growing up and proving his abilities to be able to move up in the baseball ranks. Hoy retired from baseball over a century ago, but his accomplishments still rank up there with today's notable players. According to the book, he is "one of only three outfielders to record three assists to home plate in one game and is the only outfielder ever to lead a major league in assists, putouts, and fielding percentage in the same season."

In order to play, Hoy had to overcome initial skepticism as well as difficulty with the mechanics of the game itself (not being able to hear the umpire's calls meant he had to turn and look at him after each pitch, leaving him unable to see the pitcher getting ready to throw another ball). The book is an inspiration, showing how Hoy beat his obstacles and became very successful.

Moses Goes to a Concert by Isaac Millman

In Moses Goes to a Concert, Moses and several of his classmates, all of whom are Deaf, have the opportunity to go on a field trip to a children's concert. While they are there, Moses learns an important lesson about aspirations and goals in life.

The text in the book is accompanied by small American Sign Language lessons, allowing readers to try signing for themselves. Accessibility options for the Deaf children are also addressed, along with ways that the experience can be made better for them.

Moses' story is told in a simple fashion, introducing young readers to a small part of the Deaf culture in an interesting way.

This is the first of several books about Moses, all by Isaac Millman.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick, is a novel told in words and images, telling the entwined story of a young deaf girl who longs for escape and a boy curious about his mysterious past. The alternating chapters between Rose and Ben forward the story in a moving and interesting way, and Deaf culture is respectfully introduced in such a way that will certainly spike interest among readers.

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

My Most Excellent Year is a young adult novel by Steve Kluger. It follows teenagers T.C., his brother Augie, and Alejandra, and is written in the form of diary entries, instant messages, and emails from them and other supporting characters.

My Most Excellent Year also features a very well-written and -rounded Deaf character named Hucky. Hucky is a six-year-old boy living in a residence for Deaf children after his mother abandoned him. Hucky is befriended by the three main characters, especially T.C.

Hucky is an excellent contrast to many deaf children in literature. He definitely stood out in comparison to the little boy in Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz, who is basically treated as a tragic, misunderstood character with little feelings of his own except what other characters lay onto him. Hucky, by contrast, definitely has his own personality, opinions, way of communicating, and outlook on life.

The little boy is allowed to grow over the course of the novel, along with the other three main characters. By the end of the novel Hucky is very different than he was at the start, and you can see him blossoming.

His communication "problems" are never actually a problem. The characters embrace learning American Sign Language, and there are some funny moments when they can't communicate properly or don't know the right signs. The novel even touches on the difference between ASL and British Sign Language through another character.

This is a really sweet novel that I think is a great example of the way d/Deaf/hard of hearing characters can be written so well. I really liked it and I hope you get the chance to pick it up, too.

Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf by Oliver Sacks

(Reproduced from my original review on Goodreads, June 28, 2010.)

Seeing Voices was originally published in 1989. That was a big in-between year for the deaf. In 1988 Gallaudet students successfully pushed for a deaf president of the university. And in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act would be signed into law.

As for me, in 1989 I was three years old. I had not yet been diagnosed with my own hearing loss. I had no idea who Oliver Sacks was, what "deafness" means, where Gallaudet is, or what American Sign Language is. Two years later my worried parents and grandparents would hear that I have a progressive sensorineural hearing loss, which began as a mild loss and has since progressed to a severe loss in one ear and a profound loss in the other.

Since I was "mainstreamed" as a child - educated without special education classes in a typical public school environment - I essentially knew nothing of other deaf people except Helen Keller. It was only when I began to take American Sign Language courses from the local community college (to avoid having to take two years of a spoken foreign language, which just confused me) that I learned of a Deaf culture, a Deaf identity, and the struggle that Deaf people have faced over hundreds of years. In that class I watched videos and read books and learned about the culture from my Deaf professor. And I learned American Sign Language.

ASL is an interesting language. Although it is functionally very beautiful, with flowing hands and a rhythm all its own, it can be off-putting to people not used to it. The gestures can be forceful (depending on the meaning behind the sign). Facial expressions are exaggerated along with the signing. Deaf people can be pushy: putting themselves directly in your line of sight, smacking you on the arm to get your attention, waving their hands all up in the air. So it was kind of uncomfortable at first. But there is something about sign language that draws you in. It feels right when you sign, even if you are hearing. It feels like you are just learning another skill, not another language.

I picked up this book because I've read Oliver Sacks' books before and never realized he'd published one about Deafness and Sign. And because I have a blog, Hearing Sparks, and wanted to write about this book for it, so that people know if they ought to pick it up. I think I will publish both this review and some more in-depth blog posts about the subjects touched upon by the author there.

Sacks splits his book up into three parts, which were all written at different times.

Part 1 is a cohesive and very readable history of deaf people as well as information about deafness (both medical and cultural) and Sacks' own introduction to the world of the deaf. We learn in school about history from the point of view of American colonists (if we are American) and slaves, basically. Reading about decades passing from the viewpoint of the deaf introduces not only a third viewpoint but the idea that there are many other viewpoints from which history could be told. In this chapter, Sacks draws a line between prelingually and postlingually deaf. The postlingually deaf are relatively often the most successful deaf people, because they have the memory of spoken language, grammar, sentence structure. Prelingually deaf people face challenges distinct to them, and forcing spoken language on them can lead to unforeseen consequences.

Sacks' position on oral vs. signed education for the deaf is subtly introduced in this part. He isn't forceful or annoying with his position; he simply lays out the way Sign is beneficial for the deaf, particularly prelingually deafened individuals. He closes with a visit to Martha's Vineyard, where nearly one in every family on the island was affected by deafness and every single individual knew Sign, deaf or not. (The knowledge of Sign drifted away as Martha's Vineyard became focused on tourism.)

Part 2 is a systematic view of American Sign Language itself and the way people naturally create grammar and syntax from essentially nothing. This is the longest chapter, and unfortunately suffers from an excess of footnotes and a rather dry tone. As usual, Sacks shines when writing about individuals, and the case studies he recounts in this chapter are very interesting. He quite easily demonstrates that American Sign Language is a full-fledged language in its own right, and demonstrates how languages are developed.

Part 3 was the most interesting chapter for me. Sacks details the 1989 student revolt at Gallaudet for a deaf president. He was there, and his writing about the sense of community at the college and the fervor the students felt is very interesting. The protest culminated in the appointment of King Jordan, whose resignation in 2005 would lead to further controversy when the board tried to appoint someone who was not fluent in ASL - only this time the protests also occurred online.

Overall, although parts of Sacks' books are now quite dated, it's still a very interesting read. Sacks does a good job of bringing together a lot of viewpoints, a lot of individuals, and a lot of ideas, and making them all fit together.

Heart and Soul by Robert L. Shook

I was sent a free copy of this book in October 2010 by the publisher, BenBella Books.

Heart & Soul by Robert L. Shook is a book that focuses on several companies oriented towards helping people or building a better world. While the writing can be somewhat dry at times and is often overwhelmingly positive towards companies with little skepticism, the information about the history of these companies can be very interesting. Of particular note to this blog, two of the companies featured are Starkey Laboratories (a hearing aid company), and InReturn (a company which hires and employs people with neurological challenges). Other companies featured include Mary Kay, DaVita, and World Wide Technologies. Certainly worth a read if you are interested in these companies.

If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) by Betty White

Betty White's enjoyable autobiography If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) is a collection of snippets about her life, career, friends, and family. When I first read this book in May, I shared a quote from it on my Hearing Sparks blog that I wanted to reproduce here.

Okay, so you get your glasses and everyone is extremely supportive. "Oh, those are very pretty." "Those glasses look great on you!" Et cetera, et cetera.

Somehow it's a different story when your hearing starts to go. People can even seem a little annoyed when you say "What?" too many times. They'll repeat themselves, but frequently without making it one jot clearer or louder. You find you need to see faces. If someone turns away while still talking, you realize how much lip-reading you'd been doing without realizing it.

I can remember accusing my dad of selective hearing - hearing only what he wanted to hear. Shame on me. That was before I learned how isolated one can feel when she misses a key remark and loses track of the conversation but is loath to admit it.

My father never enjoyed parties and avoided them whenever possible. He always said he couldn't hear anybody in a crowd. I always thought it was because he just didn't like parties. But now I understand. Cocktail-party small talk may not be much worth hearing, but it's tough when you can't hear it at all.

Sorry, Daddy, for this late apology - now I understand.

Hands of My Father by Myron Uhlberg

(Edited slightly from my original review on Goodreads, December 20, 2010.)

The quotes from this book continue to stay with me almost a year after finishing it:

"Does sound have rhythm? Does it rise and fall like the ocean? Does sound come and go like wind?"

My father spoke with his hands. He was deaf. His voice was in his hands. And his hands contained his memories.

Sign is a live, contemporaneous, visual-gestural language and consists of hand shapes, hand positioning, facial expressions, and body movements. Simply put, it is for me the most beautiful, immediate, and expressive of languages, because it incorporates the entire human body.

Myron Uhlberg loves his family. The way he writes this memoir of his Brooklyn childhood expresses that in many ways. His childhood was not typical. As a CODA, a Child of Deaf Adults, and sibling to a brother afflicted with epilepsy and drugged into oblivion, Myron has to deal with a lot. He acts as his parents' translator and as a third parent to his brother. The family lives in the middle of a busy block in New York City, which provides immediate access to basic needs but also a surrounding often hostile to people who are different, who cannot approach the world in the same way as others. Myron recollects with candor the ignorant and rude remarks he receives from both children and adults while serving as a go-between for his parents.

He also shares stories from his parents' childhoods, the way they grew up. Both were surrounded by hearing brothers and sisters; they grew up with crudely fashioned homemade signs and never felt as close to their parents as they could have. Their stories are a very personal look at the way deafness was treated in the early part of the 20th century.

There are, of course, humorous moments as well, but they're very grounded in the realities of life. Combining the warm, human moments with the bad times in life, Uhlberg presents a very realistic and human memoir.