This book just wasn’t for me. I felt like the pacing was a little too slow and I never found myself eager to pick the book back up. It wasn’t the writing that I didn’t care for but the development of the story.

The cover of this book is what enticed me to read it. The story was lovely, but perhaps I've grown out of YA romance.

Sometimes you just find a book with the words you need to hear, or maybe the book finds you? That's what I felt with Give Me a Sign. Apart from the representation, this one is enjoyable and it also opens your eyes, learning about life as you go on. Definitely give this one a chance!

I was really excited for Give Me a Sign because of the Deaf rep and the summer camp setting! This was a nice coming of age book that explored Deafness and there was a lot I learned about the culture throughout. There was some angst and drama, but it all ends nicely. I love a good summer romance, so I enjoyed the summer camp aspects a lot!

4.5 Stars.

I really enjoyed this book, in fact, I binged it in one sitting. The characters, the romance, and the discussions in this book were quite amazing to read.

I really loved seeing different characters with different thoughts and feelings towards their deafness and interacting with both deaf and hearing communities. I for one empathised when Lilah expressed feelings of wishing she was fully deaf to make it easier to fit into parts of the community or for hearing people to not underestimate her disability. While I am not Deaf I do find myself having similar thoughts about my own diagnoses. I, from a Hearing perspective, felt the way the author wrote the interactions in this book, either between Hearing and Deaf or Deaf and Deaf did a good job of exposing readers both to issues the Deaf Community faces as well as how communicating with other Deaf people can be an entirely different and refreshing experience, without feeling like the story was being paused to educated readers.

I felt a sense of pride reading Lilah's grasp and usage of ASL expand as the story goes on.

The characters in this book were so well written, they practically jumped off the page. Their varying personalities and the different dynamics and friendships being formed were a treat to read.

Finally, the romance in this book was quite cute and I was rooting for it from the start. I loved the development and a few bumps were handled very well and were written realistically.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Young Readers Group, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To all my YA lovers, do I have the book for you! Anna Sortino’s debut novel, Give Me a Sign, (which comes out on July 11th) takes a fun summer camp novel, but shares it through the lens of a different narrator.

This debut novel was fantastic! As someone who isn’t deaf and barely knows the ASL Alphabet, I was so interested in this story from the beginning and immediately fell in love with this glimpse into the diversity of the Deaf community that this book offered.

I loved all of the characters and how each of them represented varying types of deafness and how Lilah, our main character, learns to connect with her community and learn more about herself over the course of the story.

Aside from being informative about the Deaf community, this book also has all of the fun summer camp and teenage summer romance vibes I always look for in YA books! I binge-read this book in about 24 hours and I loved how easy it was to fall in love with this story and the character in it.

For anyone looking for a summertime read that offers insight into someone else’s experiences as a disabled person, then I definitely recommend checking this book out!
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*I received an ARC from Penguin Teen in exchange for my honest review.

Does anyone else remember the 2012 craze that was “The Fault In Our Stars”…. Yep, guilty as charged, I was one of those girlies. Honestly, I can’t say I ever outgrew that craze. And I was a lucky girl who was gifted this copy from @penguinteen and was immediately transported back to that time period. That being said, SPOILER- This one was WAY LESS devastating (my poor little heart appreciated that)

🏕️Sunmer camo for deaf, and hard of hearing teens
🏕️Slow burn
🏕️Friends to lovers
🏕️Coming of age vibes
🏕️Single POV
🏕️ Finding power in who you are

🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️

BLURB:
Lilah is stuck in the middle. At least, that’s what having a hearing loss seems like sometimes—when you don’t feel “deaf enough” to identify as Deaf or hearing enough to meet the world’s expectations. But this summer, Lilah is ready for a change.

When Lilah becomes a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind, her plan is to brush up on her ASL. Once there, she also finds a community. There are cute British lifeguards who break hearts but not rules, a YouTuber who’s just a bit desperate for clout, the campers Lilah’s responsible for (and overwhelmed by)—and then there’s Isaac, the dreamy Deaf counselor who volunteers to help Lilah with her signing.

Romance was never on the agenda, and Lilah’s not positive Isaac likes her that way. But all signs seem to point to love. Unless she’s reading them wrong? One thing’s for sure: Lilah wanted change, and things here . . . they're certainly different than what she’s used to.

🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️

As mentioned, this book was a really heart warming story of first love, that was cute, but also filled with deeper meaning. While this book gave me John Green vibes, as mentioned, this book won’t tear your heart out. Instead, it’ll take you back to the year 2012, when the “teens questioning the deeper meaning of life” genre was HUGE. I loved this, and I definitely recommend it if you were a John Green stan like I was.

Heat Level: 🔥

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I’ve been feeling very guilty that it is taking me so long to get through books. Life has gotten very busy - my apologies to the publisher.

Give Me A Sign was a valuable read for me, as it further ignited my wish to learn Auslan, and gave me wonderful insights into deaf culture. I found the little romance plot very sweet, and the “summer camp” vibes came through.

I struggled a little with the pacing - there was a lot of action at the end, but the start was slow and meandering. I think I would have been more hooked with a change of pace.

In short: a delightful YA read that highlighted important info about deaf culture and inclusivity.

I really loved this book, it has wonderful representation and nails the summer camp vibe. As a hearing person, I felt like this gave me a glimpse into another perspective and rekindled my interest in learning to sign. This is a welcome addition to our library collection.

This is such an accessible introduction to Deaf culture & will mean so much to so many Deaf & HOH kids. I learned so much as a hearing reader, on top of feeling all the summer camp nostalgia.

I loved this book! I never got to go to camp as a kid, so camp settings have always interested me. That it's an ASL camp just made it even more intriguing. The characters are what really drives this story, and they are all fantastic. This was a lighthearted, quick read - it was exactly what I needed.

ARC Review: Give Me A Sign by Anna Sortino
Thank you G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Reads for the ARC copy in exchange for honest review. All thoughts are my own.

I absolutely adored this book. I love when I learn while reading books. This book taught me so much about the deaf community. It also is a real-world portrayal of being deaf in our world that is geared towards those that can hear. There were moments when I wanted to through my kindle across the room with frustration. There is so much more we can do as a community to include everyone.

This story is about Lilah. She is stuck in the middle of her communities. Lilah has hearing aides, however, has not learned much sign language. She decides to be a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind to brush up on her sign language. In the process she makes friends and may become more than friends with one. It is such a heartfelt story about how our communities can do better. Lilah’s journey to finding her identity within the deaf community and outside of it is inspiring. We really need more stories like this. I also listened to the Audio book in tandem with this book. In the audio book, they use sounds that show they are signing each other. I loved how real the audio book felt as I listened to it.

Read if you enjoy:
Deaf and Blind representation
Sign language
Young Adult
YA Romance
Summer Camps

this was a wonderful and heartwarming story that was hard to put down and is one i would recommend to many people struggling to understand deafness and the different "identities" within the Deaf World.

I loved every single page of this! such a heartwarming story!! This felt like that kind of books you start and don't want to put down because you get attached to the characters. I felt that the scenes of them signing and trying to get to know each other were beautiful, i wish more authors included this type of disability to make it more normal in romcoms...

I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. The downfall was that I requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before the book was archived. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it!

I have given Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino three out of five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed reading about deaf culture and becoming a little more educated around this subject. I haven’t been fully exposed to deaf culture in my everyday life as there isn’t anyone in my family or whom I work with who are deaf, so it was truly inspiring to read about ASL and the growth journey we follow Lilah on.

I loved the summer camp setting for this book and would love to read more books with deaf representation in, in the future. I think it’s really important for people outside of the deaf community to be respective and understandable to the access needed surrounding this.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the romance that happens in this book as it fell under the “instalove” trope. Maybe it’s because this book is YA, but I would’ve preferred to have seen more growth and a stronger connection between Lilah and Isaac.

"Give Me a Sign" is a wonderful debut by author Anna Sortino. The story takes place in a summer camp for deaf and blind kids, centering on the story of 17-year-old Lilah, as she connects with deaf culture as someone brought up to pass as a hearing person. This young adult and own-voice novel highlights in a nuanced and detailed manner various elements of deaf culture and deaf pride while also shining a light on the difficulties of growing up as a deaf or hard-of-hearing person in an ableist society. I really enjoyed the romance between Lilah and Isaac, reading about Lilah's relationship with her family, and seeing the various friendships in the book develop.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for providing me with an eARC of Give Me a Sign in exchange for my honest review!

Give Me a Sign could have smoothed out certain parts of its execution, but it's a generally likable YA tale that provides some much-needed representation for people who are hard of hearing. Lilah feels like a real teenager whose life I'm able to follow along with as she bonds with her summer camp community and wrestles with the challenges of having a hearing loss in a society that's been designed to prioritize able-bodied people. I do think this could have polished up its messaging, considering it uses numerous moments to heavy-handedly present such commentary to me rather than organically weave it into the narrative.

And typically, this sort of gripe doesn't jump out at me, but this book really does comes off like it's hitting me over the head with the questions it's asking—questions that are important, of course, and that concern the nuances of what it's like to live as someone who isn't "fully" deaf, as someone who may or may not choose to get a cochlear implant, as someone who's hard of hearing and faces discrimination from other deaf people who believe you're not "deaf enough." They're all vital topics, but the book could have offered them up more naturally. That being said, I still enjoyed the story and the romance, with all of their lighthearted charisma and all of their weighty themes.

Overall, I'm officially rating Give Me a Sign 3.5 out of 5 stars, which I'll round down to a flat 3 stars. I'd say it's worth reading.

This is such a wonderful book that will be so important for deaf/HOH kids, as well as hearing kids who can learn about an experience outside their own. This features: A friends to lovers romance that is really precious, a summer camp for deaf and blind kids, a MC feeling caught between the deaf world and the hearing world and finding her place. A fast paced but heartfelt reading experience that I hope will be made accessible in every school library.

I was thrilled the moment I read the synopsis for this book! I love seeing Deaf and hard of hearing representation!

Lilah’s hearing loss has her feeling stuck between the Deaf and hearing world. She doesn’t quite feel as though she fits into either so jumps at the chance to expand her ASL (American Sign Language) knowledge and immerse herself as a junior counselor at a summer camp for the Deaf and blind. Whether she realizes it or not, she’s in for a summer that will change her forever!

The author does a tremendous job of conveying both the richness of Deaf culture as well as some of the struggles that living in a world that is predominately hearing presents, As someone with deaf and hard of hearing friends, I was excited to read a very honest own voice portrayal.