Show Me a Sign
By Ann Clare LeZotte
Wednesday, July 19, 2023 @ Wednesday, July 19, 2023
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Does your middle school student love historical fiction? Do they love learning about the early days of the USA? Then this book club will be a great experience, to learn about a little-known and fascinating piece of American history!
Join Mary Lambert, a young girl living on Martha’s Vineyard, a community with about 50% of its population being Deaf in the early 1800s. Mary’s just like any other girl her age—she helps her mother in the kitchen and does other chores around the farm—but her favorite thing to do is go on walks and create stories!
When you join this Book Club, together we’ll read the critically acclaimed, Show Me a Sign—and follow Mary as she tries to navigate the loss of her brother. When a young scientist comes to town and tries to understand why the community has so many Deaf people, you’ll gain an insight into the Deaf community as well as the history of this special time. You and your Literary Guide, Ms. Schuett, will analyze the characters, themes, and conflict within the story—and have so much fun learning along the way!
What Makes this Club Special…
Show Me a Sign is written by a deaf author, Ann Clare LeZotte, and offers a unique and essential glimpse into the Deaf community. This is a well-decorated title and is a winner of the Schneider Family Book Award and a finalist for the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, among its place on many other book lists with much praise.
Your Guide is a teacher with wonderful experience that helps your child learn to love reading and learning!
Your Guide, Ms. Schuett, is an experienced teacher with a Master of Fine Arts (terminal degree) in storytelling. When you sign up for this Book Club, you get a professional, highly skilled Guide who helps your student develop a love for reading while learning how to dig deeper into all the different parts of writing and creating a story.
Your Guide
Ms. Anna Schuett is a professional writer and podcaster with Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English degree from Concordia University (with an emphasis in Creative Writing) and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Genre Fiction (MFA, terminal degree) from Western Colorado University.
While studying for her MFA, Ms. Schuett was an elementary school Para-Educator and Librarian/Technology Assistant. Spending a great amount of time with students who struggled with their studies, Ms. Schuett found a love for helping students learn and grow.
Ms. Schuett works as an I.T. Coordinator for Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy clinics across the state of Nebraska. Because of a love of working with students and books, Ms. Schuett has started a second master’s program to earn her MS in Library Information Science.
Born, raised, and living in Nebraska, USA, Ms. Schuett enjoys reading, quilting, baking, and writing epic fantasy novels—all with a cup of coffee or tea within arm’s reach. You can reach Ms. Schuett at akschuett91@gmail.com.
About the Book
- Buy from Bookshop.org
- ISBN-10: 1338255819
- ISBN-13: 978-1338255812
(From Amazon) Mary Lambert has always felt safe and protected on her beloved island of Martha’s Vineyard. Her great-great-grandfather was an early English settler and the first deaf islander. Now, over a hundred years later, many people there — including Mary — are deaf, and nearly everyone can communicate in sign language. Mary has never felt isolated. She is proud of her lineage.
But recent events have delivered winds of change. Mary’s brother died, leaving her family shattered. Tensions over land disputes are mounting between English settlers and the Wampanoag people. And a cunning young scientist has arrived, hoping to discover the origin of the island’s prevalent deafness. His maniacal drive to find answers soon renders Mary a “live specimen” in a cruel experiment. Her struggle to save herself is at the core of this penetrating and poignant novel that probes our perceptions of ability and disability.
Age Range: 8 – 14 years old
Parental Guidance
Some of the themes and situations in the story may be challenging for some readers.
- Ableism: Mary and her community are viewed as “less than” by a young scientist who comes to the island.
- Kidnapping: Mary is taken from her community against her will by the young scientist so he can study her. This is a dark time in Mary’s story. She is isolated and kept from communicating with anyone while she is made to work as a drudge at an inn. (Don’t worry, she gets away and is returned home.)
- Drowning: After Mary escapes, she is pursued by the young scientist at sea. A severe storm capsizes the scientist’s boat, and he drowns by sinking into the water.
- Racism: There are conversations in the book about the local Wampanoag people. Some of the characters are racist, but the book handles the conversations with care.
- Grief: When the book begins, Mary and her family are grieving the death of her brother.
We will discuss each of the above topics with care.
There may also be some challenging vocabulary, which we will discuss together in the Club; readers are encouraged to bring up vocabulary words for discussion in our time together.
Positive Elements
- Community: Martha’s Vineyard is a diverse community with its own share of challenges—but the people rally around one another when tragedy strikes.
- Overcoming adversity: The inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard are multilingual in English and their own version of sign language. (The sign language in the story is not the ASL that we are accustomed to today, and this is addressed in the author’s note.)
- Family love/support: When Mary is kidnapped and feels all alone, her family and community do everything in their power to retrieve her and bring her home safely—which they succeed at doing.
Reading Schedule
As you read through the sections each week, simply follow the prompts as they pop up – and together, we’ll discuss the concepts from the reading and the work we did on the prompts as you become a great writer. If you come to a writing prompt that you really don’t like, feel free to skip it, no worries! We’ll discuss how to write for topics “we’re not excited about” and then come up with ideas right there in class together.
- Week 1: Discussion – Prologue – Chapter 5
- Week 2: Discussion – Chapters 6-12
- Week 3: Discussion – Chapters 13-19
- Week 4: Discussion – Chapters 20-25
- Week 5: Discussion – Chapters 26-31
- Week 6: Discussion – Chapters 32-37
How To Begin
It’s easy! Follow these steps to get started…
- Sign up and get in (before it’s full!) — Use the blue button at the bottom of this page to save your spot.
- Receive your information — Within 48 hours of signing up, you’ll get an email with your Club’s details. Save this email, bookmark the zoom link, and add the club dates to your calendar.
- Prepare for your first meeting — Get the book from your own favorite source, or buy your book(s) directly from your Book Club pages. Read the assigned chapters ahead of time, and download and print the supplies list for crafts (young readers), activity pages for during the Club time (older readers), or the handout to guide the discussion (older students).
For more information, visit the How It Works page.
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