I'm Deaf and It's Okay (A Concept Book)
Grade 1-4 An informational story in which a deaf elementary school age boy tells his feelings about deafness. He expresses his fear of the dark with its vast silence, his jealousy of his sister who can talk on the phone and his anger that outsiders don't understand him. He is particularly angry to learn he will always have to wear hearing aids. When he meets Brian, a deaf 17 year old who leads a normal life, he decides that maybe it is okay to wear hearing aids and that someday he too can help a "little deaf friend." In the authors' efforts to present all of the feelings that they deem important, a flowing story line is ignored. Full-page brown and gray illustrations are similar to the textinformative and helpful, but not really enticing. Anna's Silent World (Lippincott, 1977) by Bernard Wolf is a better choice to explain deafness. Nancy A. Gifford, Schenectady County Public Library, N.Y.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.