Deer Run Home

Starred review from September 1, 2024

Gr 4-9-Effie's first language is American Sign Language (ASL), but no one in her family takes the time to learn it. When she and her sister move in with their dad and her two best friends leave for a residential school, Effie is alone and unable to communicate fluently with anyone around her. She mourns for her neighborhood deer displaced by new construction and wonders if there is a place in the world for her as well. When school starts and her ASL interpreter gets permission for Effie to live with her for a month, a whole new world opens to Effie-a world where she is heard, valued, and worthy. What will happen when this month of bliss comes to an end? This novel in verse blends ASL grammar with English, infuses appalling circumstances with poetry, and elegantly weaves a heartbreaking story with hope. LeZotte shares some of her own experiences as a member of the d/Deaf community and draws on an actual custody case for inspiration, discussed in two different author's notes, one before and one after Effie's story. The themes of found family, abuse, neglect, conservation, friendship, independence, and self-worth are faced head-on, with grace and dignity. Readers of all ages will cry with Effie as she struggles to be heard and celebrate each victory as she learns how to make the world around her understand what she deserves. VERDICT Highly recommended for purchase in all collections.-Emily Beasley

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2024
A Deaf girl in an abusive situation has a chance at a new home. Twelve-year-old Effie and her sister have been sent away from their mother and sexually abusive stepfather to live with their neglectful father. Effie's family and peers don't know ASL and barely try to communicate with her, and her two Deaf friends have gone off to a residential school. She's repeating fifth grade because of her poor English and math skills, both stemming from language deprivation and neglect. Only ASL interpreter Miss Kathy sees that something very wrong is going on in Effie's life. The story is told from Effie's point of view in non-diegetic narrative poems that convey the feelings and thoughts she's unable to communicate to her family. Effie learns that poetry allows her to celebrate her way of expressing herself, free from the pressures of grammar. LeZotte conscientiously portrays a Deaf child who's experiencing language deprivation, a member of an often-forgotten population. Though Miss Kathy plays a pivotal role in turning Effie's life around, the author is careful not to deify those who assist people with disabilities. She juxtaposes Effie's storyline with that of her friend Cait, who has cerebral palsy and struggles with a controlling and condescending paraprofessional. While the issues Effie faces are huge, the story avoids didacticism; this poignant and compelling book is meant for anyone, yet it is accessible to kids who, like Effie, struggle with reading. Effie presents white. Quietly extraordinary. (resources, ASL learning links)(Verse fiction. 10-14)

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August 5, 2024
Tween Effie, who is Deaf, commiserates with the deer losing their homes due to redevelopment in her rural neighborhood. After her mother grows “tired/ of my problems,” Effie and her older sister Deja are sent to live with their father. As the sisters navigate their father’s temper (“My communication with Daddy/ is him stomping/ on the floor”), Effie contends with guilt (“I made life/ harder/ for my sister”). Unable to communicate as “no one/ in my family ever learned/ my first language,/ American Sign Language,” Effie keeps her head down. Repeating the fifth grade following at-home learning during the pandemic is
difficult, but now she has Miss Kathy, her ASL interpreter and the one adult interested in what Effie says. When Miss Kathy
brings Effie to live with her temporarily, Effie signs freely for the first time. In a safe, secure environment, Effie finds family and yearns to open up, despite knowing that she must soon return home. Using vivid and minimalist verse, LeZotte (the Show Me a Sign series) unflinchingly and sympathetically uncovers Effie’s family history of neglect and abuse, shedding light on an issue that often stays in the dark. Main characters default to white. Ages 10–14. Agent: Leslie Zampetti, Open Book Literary.

November 1, 2024
Having written several works of historical fiction with d/Deaf characters, LeZotte (Show Me a Sign, rev. 9/20, and sequels) now turns to a setting in which the issues that compromise the mental and physical well-being of d/Deaf children are contemporary and immediate. This first-person, present-tense verse novel accelerates suspensefully in a series of vignettes, events, and reflections. Effie lives with her older sister and alcoholic father, having been cast out of her mother and stepfather's house. None of her family has learned American Sign Language, the only language fully accessible for her; it's left to her school interpreter, Miss Kathy, to provide deep refreshment to Effie's love and communication-thirsty soul. In brief, spare entries, Effie conveys her fears and isolation, enjoys a new friendship with a classmate with cerebral palsy, and finally finds a way to tell Miss Kathy about her stepfather's sexual predation. Miss Kathy applies for custody, which is granted after a tense three-day hearing; Effie's father is found to be an unfit guardian because he refuses to learn ASL. (LeZotte reports in her author's note that she based her plot on a similar, historic case in the d/Deaf community, and that three out of four hearing parents do not learn to sign with their deaf children.) LeZotte packs a great deal into this very quick work, and while the complexity of anguish, isolation, language trauma, and sexual abuse Effie suffers could merit fuller expression, the story can pique interest and raise awareness of what it is like to grow up d/Deaf in a non-signing family, using ASL interpreters, or confronting false assumptions about disability. Deirdre F. Baker

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
Having written several works of historical fiction with d/Deaf characters, LeZotte (Show Me a Sign, rev. 9/20, and sequels) now turns to a setting in which the issues that compromise the mental and physical well-being of d/Deaf children are contemporary and immediate. This first-person, present-tense verse novel accelerates suspensefully in a series of vignettes, events, and reflections. Effie lives with her older sister and alcoholic father, having been cast out of her mother and stepfather's house. None of her family has learned American Sign Language, the only language fully accessible for her; it's left to her school interpreter, Miss Kathy, to provide deep refreshment to Effie's love and communication-thirsty soul. In brief, spare entries, Effie conveys her fears and isolation, enjoys a new friendship with a classmate with cerebral palsy, and finally finds a way to tell Miss Kathy about her stepfather's sexual predation. Miss Kathy applies for custody, which is granted after a tense three-day hearing; Effie's father is found to be an unfit guardian because he refuses to learn ASL. (LeZotte reports in her author's note that she based her plot on a similar, historic case in the d/Deaf community, and that three out of four hearing parents do not learn to sign with their deaf children.) LeZotte packs a great deal into this very quick work, and while the complexity of anguish, isolation, language trauma, and sexual abuse Effie suffers could merit fuller expression, the story can pique interest and raise awareness of what it is like to grow up d/Deaf in a non-signing family, using ASL interpreters, or confronting false assumptions about disability.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)