Text Set Overview

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.

Moses Sees a Play

Moses, a young deaf boy attends a special school where his classmates and teacher, Mr. Samuels, are also either deaf or hard of hearing. They all use American Sign Language, ASL, as their preferred mode of communication. One day, Ms. Morgan and her class from a different school, come for a visit. Although Ms. Morgan and her students are not deaf, Ms. Morgan knows ASL and has been teaching her class. All the children are excited to see the play the Little Theatre of the Deaf is going to put on after lunch! The children spend the morning getting to know each other. Moses meets Manuel who has just come to the United States and does not yet know English or sign language. Throughout the rest of the day, the two boys communicate using gestures.

After lunch, the production of Cinderella begins! The Little Theatre of the Deaf includes four actors who perform in ASL and spoken English. When the play is over, the children are eager to work on their own classroom productions that they will share with each other. At the very end of the story, Moses tells his Mom all about his exciting day and talks to his grandparents on his TTY.

Moses Sees a Play seamlessly incorporates ASL and English in a positive and enlightening way. Both languages are recognized as important and necessary to Moses and his classmates. The very beginning of the book includes an author’s note which gives a brief explanation of ASL as well as instructions on how to read the arrows and symbols featured throughout the book. In his note, Millman shares his inspiration for his most recent Moses book. After seeing a production put on by the Little Theatre of the Deaf, Millman knew he wanted Moses and his classmates to experience the same thing. Millman got the idea to include a group of hearing students after visiting “47” The American Sign Language and English School for the Deaf in New York City. There, he saw both deaf and hearing children interact using ASL. In his note, Millman also thanks two Deaf teachers, Dorothy Cohler and Joel Goldfarb, who teach at “47.” The two advised Millman while illustrating the featured sign language diagrams.

While the majority of the text is in English, most of the pages include a sentence or phrase in ASL. At the end of the book, there is a full-page spread completely in ASL with English glosses underneath the diagrams of the Moses signing. These pages accurately portray the proper facial expression, handshape, movement and syntax of ASL. The very last page depicts Moses using a TTY, a Teletype device used by the deaf to communicate over the telephone.

Moses Sees a Play is just one book in Millman’s Moses series. Other books include, Moses Goes to a Concert and Moses Goes to the Circus. Overall, Moses is a dynamic deaf character who positively portrays deaf people as capable and independent. Not only may deaf children relate to Moses and his classmates, but hearing children are given the opportunity to learn about another culture, Deaf culture.

Millman, Isaac. Moses Sees a Play. New York: Frances Foster Books, 2004.