Hear Me

by Kerry O'Malley Cerra, Caitlin Davies (Read by)

Overview

One year after being diagnosed with hearing loss, Rayne’s hearing keeps getting worse, even with aids.

It’s a struggle to maintain friendships and keep up in school, surfing is now a wipeout, and she can’t understand her favorite singer’s lyrics. But worst of all, Rayne’s parents are pushing for her to get cochlear implants, a surgery Rayne’s not convinced is worth the risks and challenges.

Rayne begs her parents to consider other options, but they’re not budging. With the surgery looming, Rayne sets off on a bus journey that forces her to face her own assumptions about what her hearing loss means and what kind of life she could have. With the help of some new friends, Rayne realizes that even though her ears may be broken, she is not.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212232326
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	09/20/2022
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kerry O'Malley Cerra is an award-winning author of middle grade books. Her first novel, Just a Drop of Water, landed on five state reading lists, won the Crystal Kite Award, a Florida Book Award, and was named to VOYA's Top Shelf Fiction list for 2014. Her second novel, Hear Me, is out now. Stay tuned for her forthcoming books, Make a Little Wave, (Oct. 1, 2024 from Carolrhoda Books, Lerner Publishing) and a nonfiction picture book, The Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA's Deaf Bioastronauts (March 2026 from Little, Brown BFYR). Kerry's work has received praise from The New York Times, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, VOYA, and the Horn Book Guide calling her stories moving, perceptive, well-developed, and woven with an expert hand. Kerry, a former high school media specialist and social studies teacher, lives in South Florida with her husband and two poorly behaved rescue dogs.

Editorial Reviews

"Cerra writes an extremely powerful story that seems to accurately translate the experience of a young girl experiencing a disability as well as the social consequences that come with it."–Children's Literature

From the Publisher

2022-07-13
Florida seventh grader Rayne is losing her hearing, and neither she nor her parents know how to handle it.

Rayne, an implied White girl, wears hearing aids that she is self-conscious about. It’s getting harder and harder to hear, and now her parents want her to get cochlear implants, which she is desperate to avoid. The dialogue is written with many omitted words replaced with asterisks to represent what Rayne misses, and it is an effective choice. Readers may get just frustrated enough to develop insight into Rayne’s experiences, but the text remains readable and comprehensible. In the end, the lesson is loud and clear: Neither Rayne nor her ears are “broken,” and there is more than one way for her to live with her increasing deafness. Cerra does a good job of presenting many of the pros and cons of cochlear implants, acknowledging that while they help some, they are not a cure-all. Two resources at the end unfortunately undermine the book’s central message: the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a group that is controversial at best in the signing Deaf community that Rayne ultimately enters, and the Signing Exact English Center. Organizations supporting American Sign Language, a natural language central to Deaf culture in the U.S., are also included. Still, Rayne is a likable protagonist, and readers will root for her. (This review was updated for accuracy.)

An interesting story of a particular deaf experience. (author’s note, discussion questions) (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews