Savannah is a communications major at a prominent university. One day, while walking across campus, she eyes a guy she can’t resist. He is absolutely gorgeous. The communications major is taking American Sign Language (ASL) with Prof. Stockton to fulfill her language requirement. One homework assignment is to attend a Deaf event….
Audiologists acknowledge four levels of deafness—mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Author Cece Bell is severely to profoundly deaf. At the age of four she contracted meningitis, robbing her of most of her hearing. When she started public school, Cece was mainstreamed into a regular classroom. She knew she was different from the other kids due…
If you have a child in middle school or high school taking Algebra and you feel frustrated, you’re not alone. In a 2011 survey released by Sylvan Learning, a private for profit educational firm, 71% of parents questioned would prefer teaching their children to drive a car than tutor them in Algebra. A child’s problem…
Deafness is an invisible disability leaving its victims isolated within a hearing environment where oral language dominates the social, political, and entertainment worlds. Compared with the general population, there are few people touched by deafness, so the majority has no idea of its emotional impact and social effect on its victims. Myron Uhlberg knows better….
The Westside Jewish Community Center on Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles hosted its 12th annual basketball exhibition game Saturday evening March 3, 2018 between the Special Macabees and the Santa Monica West Side Special Olympics All-Stars. It was a rainy evening, but the excitement inside the JCCA was palpable. Athletes on both teams ranged in…
During 2017 Pop read and reviewed 32 YA books. Here are his five favorites with the #1 posted last. #5 Collide The last day of spring break Anna (aka Annabelle) and younger brother Eric have the opportunity to go out for dinner with their parents. Eric wants Italian and Anna craves sushi. Mom tosses a…
Pop applauds author Erin Fry for including lead characters with disabilities in her extraordinary middle grade novel, Secrets of the Book. Spencer Lemon, a pre-teen with a degenerative eye disease and his buddy Gregor, stricken with autism, manage with great effort to overcome their impairments to defeat the bad guy and save the world. Sixth…
Chris Grafil, a graduate of DeVry University, Pomona and a field engineer at Retina Institute of California by day, has an interesting dream. He wants to be a funny man like George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, or Chris Tucker. Grafil says, “When I was a tween and teen I seemed to always make my friends laugh…
Lost and Found by Sharon Ledwith is an excellent read for YA readers on several levels. It teaches kids about leadership and responsibility, and it sets a fine example for us humans to care better for the animals around us Whiskey, a fifteen-year-old calico cat, is the only link of communication between the cat floor…
Author Lou Ann Walker’s primary language is American Sign Language (ASL). Born to Deaf parents, it was her job to be the ears and voice for her family. Raised in Indiana during the early 1950s-60s, Walker eloquently writes about a loving family faced by an ignorant public to the problems inherent in deafness. Over twenty-three…