Welcome
back! It’s been a busy (and here in Massachusetts, HOT) start to the new school
year!
I was recently consulting in a third-grade mainstream classroom,
and got into a conversation with the teacher about representation of students
with varied abilities and physical appearances in children’s literature. She
strives to create a classroom library where each student can find themselves in
the characters in the books she reads and provides. This teacher asked for book
recommendations featuring characters with hearing loss. I reached out to my
good friend and fellow teacher of the deaf, JennyKate Marble, who is a school
librarian. She sent me the list below and I’m excited to share it here with
you.
Picture Books:
The Deaf Musiciansby
Pete Seeger
Kami and the Yaksby
Andrea Stenn Stryer
My Heart Glowby
Emily Arnold McCully
The Printerby Myron Uhlburg
The Mitten Stringby
Jennifer Rosner
The Moses Goes Toseries
by Isaac Millman
Chapter Books:
Ruby Lu, Empress of Everythingby
Lenore Look
Feathersby Jacqueline Woodson
You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!by Alex Gino
Hurt Go Happyby
Ginny Rorby
T4by Ann Clare LeZotte
Graphic Novels:
El Deafoby Cece Bell
Let’s take on my cooperating teacher’s goal of equal
representation and make sure our students are represented in all classroom
libraries (and maybe update our own collections, too!) Cheers to a new school year!
