The National Association of the Deaf (NAN) is alarmed by the growing trend among some state governments seeking to cut costs by underfunding and closing schools for the deaf around the country. Many Government officials and legistrators do not comply with the Individual Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that protects the students who are deaf and hard of hearing receive a free public appropriate public education. True Biz, my new book, is a thoroughly Deaf novel, in character, plot and form. Lately, as I travel and speak with readers about True Biz, I’ve finally been able to verbalise what has always been true, even when I was unwittingly fighting against it: I would not have become a writer without ASL. For some, this seems counterintuitive, since I write in English. But language bears more than the work of communicating with the mainstream world; it is also the internal vehicle for our thoughts and feelings, the mechanism through which we understand ourselves. Without first having had ASL, I would not have understood myself as a person with a story to tell. family life, friendships, first love, disunity, disharmony, quarreling, loss, and a full range of personal and political struggles…. A coming-of-age story that explores the complexities of community and the ways in which language defines us.

This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Main Characters But… the story itself was meh. While real issues were examined in Charlie and Austin’s lives, not enough time was spent on them. I wanted the focus to be on student lives. The headmaster had way too much focus on her personal problems and frankly, I didn’t care. Towards the end another student’s perspective is added and it was great! She tries to steel herself for the press, to choose words that might tamp down the frenzy, or at least not add any fuel. “Lost” is wrong; she shouldn’t say that—she hasn’t misplaced them. They escaped, more like it, though that makes the school sound like prison. “Runaways” is charged with a certain angst, suggests abuse. Eventually she settles on “gone missing,” the passive obscuring responsibility. What had pushed February over the edge specifically was Danny Brown calling singsong from the row behind her, “February’s very hairy, and she eats the yellow snow.” Only deaf people would name their daughter February, she’d thought then. Certain months were acceptable for use as girls’ names—April, May, June—and her name was undoubtedly the result of some miscommunication of these guidelines. But February’s parents had always preferred winter, the silent splendor of snow clinging to the chinquapin oaks, and in the Deaf world of her childhood beauty was taken in earnest. Her parents’ friends weren’t concerned with looking corny, and February had never seen any of them say something sarcastic. It was a world she disliked leaving, especially for such hostile territory as the fourth grade. We enter River Valley School for the Deaf with three main characters….February, Charlie, and Austin….and become a part of the deaf community. [sign language, lip reading, disability, and civil rights]…..

Success!

The school doesn’t want to pay for specialized, effective services. The first solution seems to be trying to throw technology at a student. Why teach spelling when you can just thrust an iPad into a student’s hands? I have no doubt that a school district would try something similar for a deaf student. For those who loved the Oscar-winning film CODA, a boarding school for deaf students is the setting for a kaleidoscope of experiences."- The Washington Post At any rate, as I said in my introduction, True Biz is a book that needs to be read—now. Novic has powerful stories to tell and a great deal to teach hearing readers. I may not buy entire cases of True Biz, but I will almost certainly be buying multiple copies of this title to share with others. Austin Workman is a popular student who comes from a supportive deaf family. His mother is expecting a new baby, and he has to navigate how the new baby will change his family dynamic. Like all teenagers, the young adult characters in the novel occupy one of life’s in-between stages—as Austin notes when he’s sifting through magazines at the doctor’s office. “All of them were either adult in the worst way . . . or too childish.” In what other ways do the characters—including the adults—straddle two or more different worlds? If each character were at the center of a different Venn diagram, how would you label the circles?

February Waters was nine years old when she—in the middle of math class, in front of everyone—stabbed herself in the ear with a number two Ticonderoga. Their teacher had been chalking the twelve times tables up on the board, providing February a window in which to sharpen the pencil, the grinding drawing her classmates up from their daydreams, their eyes following her across the room toward the teacher’s corner. February stepped unsteadily on the felted swivel chair, then planted herself in a wide stance on the desk and jammed the pencil deep into her left ear. This important novel should—true biz—change minds and transform the conversation.” —Maile Meloy, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

READERS GUIDE

A] touching and witty celebration of Deaf culture . . . moving and revelatory.” — Booklist (starred review) i 100% fully recommend this book! especially if you ever wanted to learn more about deaf culture and ASL! Austin is "third generation deaf" (my tern). His mother and her parents are deaf; his father is an ASL interpreter who functions comfortably in both deaf and hearing communities. When his younger sister is born and turns out to be hearing, every member of his family worries about the impact this difference will have on the family's bonds. In particular, Austin is shaken by the ways his sister's arrival may change his relationship with his father. I was drawn to this novel after watching the movie "CODA", which is about a hearing daughter with deaf parents who has a talent for singing. It was beautifully filmed and showed a deaf family navigating their day to day life. Of course, things are different now, February thinks as she looks out over the quad at the River Valley School for the Deaf, squinting against the early sun. The internet has been world-opening for deaf people, and Deaf culture has evolved to accommodate plenty of mainstream snark and slang. Plus, hearing people are naming their kids all sorts of weird things now—fruits and animals and cardinal directions.

True Biz is an incredibly gripping tale of River Valley, a school for the deaf. Two of the students are featured: Austin Workman and Charlie Serrano. But don’t the teachers have to meet certain goals? In theory, yes. But in reality, the teachers are the ones filling out the goal reports (magically they always meet their goals). The teachers can put their hands on the scale. They can prompt the student, even providing answers to write down. The teachers are evaluating themselves. because charlie, austin, and co. do a great job at demonstrating the difficulties that inherently affect the deaf community, but they also are great examples of how those challenges are constantly being overcome. the students’ lives and experiences at school are amazing springboards for discussing language, accessibility, cultural differences, and acceptance. He pushes the microphone against her chin and gives her a sympathetic look that rings false around the eyes. Part tender coming-of-age story, part electrifying tale of political awakening, part heartfelt love letter to Deaf culture, True Bizis wholly a wonder.Sara Nović examines the ways language can include, exclude, or help forge an identity—as well as what it means to carve out a place for yourself in a world that sees you as other.” —Celeste Ng, New York Timesbestselling author of Little Fires EverywhereCharlie is a new student to River Valley. For years, she has been bounced around her local school district, spending time in special education and dabbling in mainstream. Her mother is focused on how things look, forbidding Charlie from signing, and forcing her into a cochlear implant. How will Charlie fare at River Valley with her limited sign language? Charlie, the deaf daughter of hearing parents and one of the school's newest students, had a cochlear implant as a toddler, but the hearing-world functionality her doctors promised never emerged. Instead, she's been spending years of her life being prohibited from learning ASL and fighting the discomfort and distraction of the implant while relying on lip reading that leaves her guessing about what those around her are saying. She perceives her parents' efforts to keep her in the hearing world as a demonstration of shame they feel as a result of her deafness. Part tender coming-of-age story, part electrifying tale of political awakening, part heartfelt love letter to Deaf culture, True Biz is wholly a wonder.” —Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere Here's why not. Because a) ASL is a language with an absolutely unique grammatical structure that my romance-language learning self was completely unprepared for and b) ASL, like any language, isn't just a communication system—it's the lynch pin of an entire community—and really learning ASL requires integrating one's self into the culture of that community as fully as possible. I learned that signing ASL was not something I could even begin to accomplish with a few semesters of community college classes. And I learned how absolutely remarkable were both my students who were determined to function in two vastly different languages and cultures and the translators working with them.