I knew right away I wanted to focus on disability as my text set topic. Disability is often very closely linked with special education, a passion of mine. At first, I was open to literature that portrayed any disability, but as I read through possible books, I kept coming back to the ones that featured Deaf or Hard of Hearing characters. As someone studying Deaf Education, I knew my experience with these pieces of literature would be further enhanced by my previous knowledge and experience with Deaf and Hard of Hearing people. Three of the books I chose feature Deaf characters, while one book features a young boy who is Hard of Hearing. I felt like it was important to include a Hard of Hearing character who does not use sign language as a way of representing a large portion of people who have a hearing loss. Not everyone who is deaf or has a hearing loss signs, and I wanted my text set to be reflective of this reality.
When it came to making my final selections, I really considered the author’s insider experience. Of the books I chose, one author is Deaf, another is the child of deaf adults, or a CODA, one wears a hearing aid and one closely works with two Deaf teachers to write his books. I think I included a nice array of authors with diverse experience with deafness. They are reflective of diversity within a unified group or culture of people—an important element of multicultural literature to keep in mind. They each have different experiences and share theses experiences in very different forms of children’s literature.
I included each book in my text set for its own unique reason. One of my favorite books is Dad, Jackie and Me by Myron Uhlberg. This book goes beyond simply focusing on a son and his Deaf father, but also addresses the racial prejudice experienced by Jackie Robinson. I really appreciate the fact that this book tackles two major themes at once. Placing a Deaf character within a historical time period filled with racism creates a very realistic experience—of course there were deaf people who watched baseball and rooted for Jackie Robinson during his rookie season. All too often I think books solely focus on disability or racial issues, when in all reality they are much more connected than sometimes originally thought. Uhlberg does a really nice job of integrating and connecting a Deaf father and the racial prejudice he and his son witnessed at Ebbets Field.
Moses Sees a Play certainly had a place in my text set for its use of both English and American Sign Language, ASL. Many of the books I came across featured characters who signed, but the illustrations didn’t accurately portray their language with any realism. All of the Moses book by Isaac Millman feature accurate illustrations of the characters signing in ASL. Although the illustrations are very cartoon-like, ASL is still accurately portrayed. This brings me to me selection of Deaf Child Crossing by Marlee Matlin. Matlin’s novel includes numerous references to how the characters sign, giving the adventuresome reader the opportunity to learn a few signs themselves. Although there are no illustrations, the description of how a sign is done is very detailed. I also chose Deaf Child Crossing because of Matlin is one of the few Deaf authors who has written for adolescents. There are not many deaf authors to begin with, let alone deaf authors who write for children and adolescents. I think Matlin’s book would be enjoyed by young adolescent girls in particular. The experiences of the characters are very relatable and realistic to that age group.
I had a difficult time choosing the last book in my text set. I decided on Cosmo Gets an Ear by Gary Clemente mainly because it featured a Hard of Hearing character. Like I mentioned before, I thought this was an appropriate choice because of the diversity within the Deaf and Hard of Hearing population that is reflects. I also enjoyed the book and its humorous, unique style of involving the reader by writing the majority of the text as silly multiple-choice questions. The illustrations are also humorous and still manage to accurately portray a modern hearing aid.
I found compiling a text set focused on a topic of my choice to be a worthwhile and valuable project. Throughout my college career I have come across the titles of many children’s books with deaf characters, but never really took the chance to explore them. I’m glad I had the opportunity to take some time and find several quality pieces of literature that positively and accurately portray Deaf and Hard of Hearing characters. I plan to someday share these books with my own students, hoping that they appreciate meeting characters similar to themselves.
