Common Sense Media Review
Historic island community comes to life with deaf heroine.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
Mary Lambert says in the opening to SHOW ME A SIGN, "not every writer comes to English from the same direction." Mary's winding path with the reader begins with a morning walk in Part One, where she and a friend discover a beached whale that takes readers to her family's reckoning with the loss of her brother then to the arrival of a scientific stranger in her tight-knit community to the moment where she is kidnapped. In Part Two, Mary finds herself in an entirely different predicament in Boston, where she's been collected as a "live specimen" and deaf people like her are treated as "wretches." Summoning her courage and the help she needs, Mary finds her way back home to her beloved family, community, and island.
Is It Any Good?
Ann Clare LeZotte has begun a fantastically moving trilogy that weaves a little-known era of early American history with Deaf culture through the eyes of a smart, tender heroine of her times. Show Me a Sign reveals a beloved island community where everyone accommodates deafness as a difference in communication and contrasts that with the harshness of big city where most see deafness as a "burden." The contrast is sharply felt -- not only in the historical sense, but any reader who has a safe space for their differences but braves spaces not made for them will keenly relate to Mary's experiences.
LeZotte has taken the overlooked, unique history of Martha's Vineyard and gorgeously recast its history in fresh characters and a differently felt language where acceptance and equality feel utterly possible. This story invites readers to explore our archaic perceptions of communication and awaken a deeper way of understanding each other. Destined to be a classic, this book earns its place on every middle grade bookshelf.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the book cover of Show Me a Sign. Look at the shape of the hands and look up what it means in sign language. The author Ann Clare LeZotte shares about this hand sign online. Why do you think this particular sign was chosen for the cover?
Mary and her village lived on an island named Martha's Vineyard in 1805. Can you find this island on a map? Remembering how Mary wrote that it took several days to travel by boat, can you trace how far Boston is from the island?
What kind of food did Mary and her family eat on the island? What kind of food did she eat while in Boston? Have you ever tried any of these foods?
Discuss what Mary Lambert means when she writes, "For those who take hearing and speaking for granted, our way of life may be hard to understand." How can learning about different forms of communication help us to understand others better?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Historical Fiction
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship , History
- Character Strengths : Communication , Courage , Curiosity
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Scholastic Press
- Publication date : March 3, 2020
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 288
- Available on : Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : April 19, 2026
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