A deaf girl writes about the pain and beauty of being different

Ann Clare LeZotte (inset photo), author of Deer Run Home, explains her new book of verse for children aged 10 to 14.

By Louise Kinross

The protagonist of Deer Run Home is a 12-year-old deaf girl called Effie who tells her story in poems.

The title of each short poem is often part of the first sentence, which pulls the reader in. Before you know it, you’re flipping pages to learn about Effie’s world.

She’s isolated in a family that refuses to learn American Sign Language (ASL), which is how she freely communicates. Her mother only listens to her if she speaks. “My sister has never/ picked up sign,/ not even from/ spending so much/ time around me,” she writes. Her father, an abusive alcoholic, stomps or claps to get her attention, then points to things. “He gets annoyed if I sign./ He doesn’t have the patience to write…”

In contrast, Effie describes the joyful rush of catching up with her school interpreter Miss Kathy: “After/ not signing/ all summer,/ being able to spill/ out everything/ I’m thinking/ to Miss Kathy is like/ all the dead plants/ on our porch/ coming alive/ from a downpour,/ then flowering./ Maybe even a double rainbow.”

The writing is compact and accessible, but captures the complexity of Effie’s life. She’s sent to live with her dad in his trailer because her stepfather sexually abused her. She goes hungry there and has no clean clothes to wear.  

Effie identifies with the deer who are being displaced in her dad’s neighbourhood as more houses are built.

There are bright spots: a new friendship with a disabled student who wants to learn sign and an English teacher who encourages her to write poems in the word order of ASL. The title of the book—“Deer Run Home”—is an example.

Miss Kathy picks up on the abuse and neglect in Effie’s family and intervenes to have her come live with her.

A note from author Ann Clare LeZotte, who is a deaf librarian in Florida, explains that the story is based on a real girl who was adopted by her school’s ASL interpreter in 1995. She also describes how Deaf with a capital “D” refers to people who speak sign language and identify with Deaf culture, while deaf with a lowercase “d” refers to the experience of not hearing.

There are great resources to Deaf-created online content at the back.

This book is about difference, relationships, poverty, abuse, courage and belonging. Check out this great Scholastic discussion guide for teachers and parents. 

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