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Books
Read some of these books for help with raising your child.
This is a list of books about deafness. Some are about raising deaf children. Others are about the lives of successful deaf people. We've listed some of our favorites here, as well as links to more book lists. Check them out to learn about the experiences of the people with hearing loss and their families.
Children's Books
Sign Language Books for Children
Parenting Advice
Personal Stories from Parents and Deaf People
History of the Deaf
Helpful Links
Children's Books
I'm Deaf and It's Okay
By Lorraine Aseltine, Evelyn Mueller, Nancy Tait and Nancy Taid
This book is for 4 to 8-year-olds. It's about a boy who grows up with hearing loss. He feels very frustrated when he tries to communicate with other people. Then he meets a deaf teenager. The older boy helps him deal with his feelings. This book was written by teachers of the deaf.
Deaf Child Crossing
By Marlee Matlin
This book is for 9 to 12-year-olds. It's about Megan, a deaf girl, and Cindy, her hearing friend. They go to summer camp together, where they find new friends and interests. In the end, they find what friendship really means. This book was written by Marlee Matlin. She was the first deaf person to win an Oscar.
Moses Goes to a Concert
By Isaac Millman
This book is for 4 to 8-year-olds. It's about Moses, a boy who is deaf. He goes to a concert with his class from the deaf school. The children feel the music by holding balloons. The book is colorful and teaches the reader some signs.
Amelia Lends a Hand
By Marissa Moss
This book is for 9 to 12-year-olds. It's about Amelia, who has a new neighbor. When she finds out that her neighbor is deaf, Amelia starts learning sign language. The book also has 8 pages of cards with signs you can learn.
I Have a Sister, My Sister is Deaf
By Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson
This book is for 4 to 8-year-olds. It's about a girl with a younger sister who is deaf. She talks about what being deaf is like for her younger sister.
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Sign Language Books for Children
My First Book of Sign Language
By Joan Holub
This book is for 4 to 8-year-olds. It's a beginner's guide to sign language. It has signs for each letter of the alphabet. It also has signs for common words that begin with each letter.
Baby's First Signs
By Kim Votry and Curt Waller
This book is for children from babies to preschool. It has large, colorful drawings that show the signs for simple words like "milk" and "more." It's made of cardboard, so it can last a long time.
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Parenting Advice
When Your Child is Deaf: a Guide for Parents
By David Luterman and Mark Ross
This book was written by two experts in the area of deafness. It tells you what you may experience when you raise a deaf child. The book also has tips you can use with your child.
Raising and Educating a Deaf Child
By Mark Marschark
This book is written by a college professor at the National Technical Institute of the Deaf. He writes about the choices parents have to make for their deaf children. This book is endorsed by the American Society for Deaf children.
The Silent Garden: Raising Your Deaf Child
By Paul Ogden
The Silent Garden was written by a college professor who was born deaf. Ogden writes about the choices parents of deaf children face. The book includes stories and interviews with parents.
Choices in Deafness: a Parents' Guide to Communication Options
By Sue Schwartz
This book guides parents of deaf children through the choices they will face. It has stories about young children with hearing loss. It also features updates on those children when they're older.
Kid Friendly Parenting with Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Children
By Denise Chapman Weston and Daria Medwid
This step-by-step guide has lots of ideas for working with children ages 3 to 12. It has fun things you can do to work on problems and become a closer family. Kid Friendly Parenting also has information on special services and resources.
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Personal Stories from Parents and Deaf People
Alandra's Lilacs: the Story of a Mother and her Deaf Daughter
By Tressa Bowers
Alandra's Lilacs is about the life of a profoundly deaf girl. As she grows up, she tries many different kinds of communicating and schools. She tries oralism and total communication. She also goes to a residential school for the deaf, and a mainstream public school.
Deaf Again
By Mark Drolsbaugh
Deaf Again is Drolsbaugh's story of being born hearing to Deaf parents. He starts to lose his hearing when he's still young. For years he tries to fit into the hearing world. But he only becomes happy when he accepts the fact that he's deaf, and becomes part of Deaf culture.
Listen with the Heart
By Michael A. Harvey
This book is written by a psychologist who works with families and people with hearing loss. The book shows how deafness can affect family relationships. It also has advice on how to help a deaf child adjust to a mainstream school.
Reading between the Lips: a Totally Deaf Man Makes it in the Mainstream
By Lew Golan
This book is about the author's life as a profoundly deaf person. He speaks and reads lips to fit into the hearing world. His book talks about the good side of being oral.
What's that Pig Outdoors? A Memoir of Deafness
By Henry Kisor
Kisor writes about his life as a deaf person in hearing culture. He loses his hearing at the age of three. But thanks to his family and teacher, he learns to talk and read lips. He even becomes a journalist when he grows up.
Deaf Like Me
By Thomas S. Spradley and James P. Spradley
Deaf Like Me is about the family of a deaf girl. Her parents try very hard to teach her to speak and be "normal." But in the end, the girl teaches her family about love and what being "normal" really means.
When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes
By Philip Zazove
Zazove was born deaf and raised orally. He worked hard to make it in the hearing world. Now he's a doctor. His book talks about his current life as a deaf doctor, and what it was like growing up.
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History of the Deaf
Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign Against Sign Language, 1847-1920
By Douglas C. Baynton
This book tells the history of how people have tried to stop deaf people from using sign language. For almost 100 years, deaf children were mostly taught using sign language. Then people tried to ban it. They also tried to keep deaf people apart, and stop them from marrying each other.
This book also talks about Deaf culture. It shows how sign language is natural for deaf people.
Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World
By Leah Hager Cohen
This book is about one year in the author's childhood. Her hearing father was superintendent of the New York City Lexington School for the Deaf. Her grandfather, who is deaf, was a former student. She shows how the school is getting more students who are different. She also presents debates in educating deaf children. For example, she talks about using American Sign Language in the classroom, and cochlear implants for children. In the end, she support having schools for the deaf.
Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard
By Nora Ellen Groce, John W.M. Whiting
This book is about an island where many of the people were born deaf. Because many people were deaf, everyone on the island learned sign language. This is the story of how the hearing and deaf islanders lived.
Seeing Voices
By Oliver W. Sacks
Dr. Sacks gives you a short history of deaf people. Then he talks about being at the 1988 protests at Gallaudet University, where the students demanded a deaf president. He shows the ways deaf people have been treated and how they've been viewed.
Never the Twain Shall Meet: Bell, Gallaudet, and the Communications Debate
By Richard Winefield
This book talks about the debate over using sign language to teach children. The two main people in this debate were Alexander Graham Bell and Edward Miner Gallaudet. Graham believed in teaching children orally. Gallaudet believed in teaching children with sign language. Both men had similar backgrounds, but very different beliefs and ways of teaching. This book looks at how their views of society affected how they taught children. It also shows you how their work still affects how deaf children are taught today.
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Helpful Links
Check out these other websites with reading lists:
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