Show Me A Sign

This historical fiction story written by Ann Clare Lezotte, was very unique.  Its main character is Mary, a deaf girl, living on Martha's Vineyard shortly after the American Revolution.  The community has always had a high deaf population, who have mingled with the society and got aong very well.  Almost everyone signs, even the hearing population. However, when a scientist arrives and wants to study the area to determine what causes the "affliction", the sheltered people of the island see that their world may not be that of other deaf people.  His ignorance, fear and disgust with their "disability" and his relentless passion to find the cure threaten their town but also Mary's safety.  Based on a real town on Martha's Vineyard, the author wove the town's true story into this tale, along with historical information about the struggles of the local Native Americans, displaced by English settlers. (FIC LEZ)