Theme for 2022:
Building Inclusive Communities for All
It has been estimated that 466 million people in the world suffer from hearing issues or deafness! So it is likely you know someone or of someone who is deaf.
Deaf people in our world are beginning to be much more visible for school students which is a wonderful thing. At school we have two deaf students, one of whom has a cochlear implant. They are super keen to fit in and I have made sure that they see themselves represented in books in the library. Story Box Library an online Australian book website which we subscribe to, has books read in Auslan. The news and community announcements on television are signed and often a class will add signing to a song in assembly. Probably not enough, but far better than it used to be.
There are some wonderful picture books to introduce 'deafness' to children. I have written about some before. See here, but there are newer ones.
Boy Bear cannot hear Dad Bear coming to wake him up in the morning but he can feel the floor vibrate with his heavy footsteps. He can only grasp little bits of what his teacher says to him at school. He cannot catch what his friends are laughing at. And, all the time, Boy Bear keeps hearing the question, "Can Bears ski?" What does it mean? Richard Antrobus is telling his own story of being young and deaf.
El Deafo by Cece Bell
El Deafo is a funny, deeply honest graphic novel memoir for middle graders. It chronicles the author's hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with a powerful and very awkward hearing aid called the Phonic Ear. It gives her the ability to hear--sometimes things she shouldn't--but also isolates her from her classmates. 
A powerful and personal story from Joyce Dunbar about what it's like to experience hearing difficulties.
The boy in this story lives in a silent world because he is deaf, but he feels his community's fear of a dragon.
There are quite a few picture book biographies about deaf people who were leaders.
See all those about Helen Keller.
See those about Annie Sullivan
The biography of world-famous deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.
A biography about deaf baseball player William Hoy
Based on the true story of Chinese dancer Lihua Tai, The Visible Sounds tells the uplifting tale of a young child dealing with the frustration and solitude of hearing loss. Alone in silence, the child's life is changed forever when a chance touch unlocks a vibrant new world, now blazing with rainbows.
And of course there's also Edison and Beethoven.
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