Cesaria Feels the Beat by Denise Rosario Adusei

Cesaria Feels the Beat - 40 pages

Denise Rosario Adusei, Priscila Soares (Illustrator)

Summary (From Goodreads)

Cesaria is going to perform for the seaside Carnival. She skips past the beach barefoot, dressed in her favorite peacock leotard.

But when her dance director tells her she must put on her shoes to go on stage, Cesaria signs, “Peacocks don’t wear shoes!”

You see, Cesaria hears the music through the soles of her feet, but no one seems to understand…

…That is, until all the dancers take off their shoes, and learn to feel the music, just like Cesaria.

Review

A nice story about experiencing the world through another point of view.  The author includes a story in the back about her deaf cousin that inspired her to write this book.  

El Deafo by Cece Bell

 El Deafo by Cece Bell-233 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a really good graphic memoir about the author's childhood grappling with her deafness. She got Meningitis at age 4 and it caused her to go deaf. This happened in the 1970s. She had to wear hearing aids behind her ear at home, but a phonic ear at school. Bell was somewhat embarrassed at the time and scared that the other kids would make fun of her for being different. She made (and lost and regained) some friends across her childhood. Bell created an alter ego for herself called El Deafo to help gain confidence in herself and come to grips with her deafness. This is a powerful story about growing up deaf and what it means to different people. I highly recommend reading this if you haven't. 

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

 Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky-80 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is an interesting, thought-provoking collection of poems. It tells a story of a town being ravished by war and bombardment. The town goes deaf and deafness is seen as an illness. Many townspeople are killed and some fight back against the soldiers. Some soldiers are killed, but those who resist them are killed in retaliation. I picked this up because of a line in the book "The deaf don't believe in silence. Silence is the invention of the hearing." The entire collection of poems provokes pondering the meaning of being hearing and being deaf and what it means to resist oppression. 

My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter

My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter 318 pages At twenty-eight, Lacey Gears is exactly where she wants to be. An up-and-coming, proudly Deaf artist in Philadelphia, she's in a relationship with a wonderful man and rarely thinks about her difficult childhood in a home for disabled orphans. That is, until Lacey receives a letter that begins, "You have a sister. A twin to be exact. . ." Learning that her identical, hearing twin, Monica, experienced the normal childhood she was denied resurrects all of Lacey's grief, and she angrily sets out to find Monica and her biological parents. But the truth about Monica's life, their brief shared past, and the reason for the twins' separation is far from simple. And for every one of Lacey's questions that's answered, others are raised, more baffling and profound. I am a Sign Language Interpreter for the Deaf and I know a lot about the deaf culture. This book opened my eyes even more to the deaf culture and their feelings about being deaf. This was definitely a book with an unusual ending. The middle was a little slow and predictable for me, but most of it was very interesting.

Soundless by Richelle Mead

Soundless by Richelle Mead  266 pages

For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village. Her people are at the mercy of a mysterious faraway kingdom, which delivers food in return for precious metals mined from the treacherous cliffs surrounding them.

When villagers begin to lose their sight, their rations shrink and many go hungry. Fei's home, the boy she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation.

Then Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon . . .