ID: Black mother and daughter sitting side by side. Audiologist is fitting child with a hearing aid.

This year I am honoring Disability Book Week with several book reviews. My name is Helina Seyoum and I am a diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility subject matter expert. I am also the mother of a Deaf child, so this week of recognition is very significant to our family. Enjoy these reviews! And add to the discussion below for your take on these books!

Mighty Mila by Katie Petruzziello, centered on a young deaf girl with cochlear implants (or CIs) fighting to be seen as a ‘big kid’ within her home, is a great story to honor No Limits for Deaf Children Day. The protagonist, Mila, is confident, strong and proud of who she is. Her representation of a self-reliant child with stellar problem solving skills allows readers to see that deaf children are as independent and autonomous as hearing children. A distinct strength of this book is the ability of the author to thoughtfully provide information about the experience of using CIs without being overly technical. Mila describes how CIs help her hear “big and teeny tiny sounds”, her headband and bike helmet hold her CIs in place, and how she must focus to interpret certain sounds. 

One of the drawbacks is that deaf children of color may struggle to fully identify with the book due to the lack of racial or ethnic diversity. However, I do recognize that the narrative is based on the author’s daughter so I recommend pairing Mighty Mila with a book like Extraordinary Jordyn, a wonderful story of a black girl with hearing devices. More on Jordyn’s story below.

One more concern I’d like to share within Mighty Mila is that the only show of American Sign Language (ASL) within the book was the sign for “love” depicted on Mila’s shirt. As the parent of a deaf child who uses cochlear implants, I’m concerned that may be perpetuating the notion that children with hearing devices do not need a signed language and only need to learn to communicate through listening and spoken language, a trend that I commonly see.

I encourage parents and educators to seek out books that celebrate the use of ASL in addition to hearing devices Here is more information from the National Association of the Deaf ( read the position statement on ASL here. An overall positive point is that the author includes several exercises focusing on exploration and comprehension which is beneficial for all kids, but especially preschoolers to second graders working on building their vocabulary and perspectives on differences.

You may not know this, but within Deaf culture, Deaf with an uppercase “D” refers to sign language users who often view their Deafness as a cultural identity as opposed to a disability, while a lowercase “d” refers to a certain level of hearing loss, typically severe to profound. I currently refer to my 3 year old as Deaf with a capital D but I’m curious to see how she identifies as she grows. There are also many who identify as ‘having hearing loss’ as we see in Extraordinary Jordyn and her Bionic Ears!

This engaging read by Dr. Jasmine Simmons is centered on a compassionate black girl who uses a hearing aid in one ear and a cochlear implant in the other. The author herself is a deafblind audiologist and I appreciate that she writes from her unique perspective, providing representation for children of color, those who use different types of hearing devices, and kids that identify as having hearing loss instead of deaf or hard of hearing.

Throughout the book, the protagonist Jordyn faces unkind comments from a classmate about her hearing devices, offering readers opportunities for thinking about their own perceptions of devices, hearing differences and deafness. Between Jordyn’s affirmations, the unique perspectives of her parents, and fostering understanding for those who are different from us, the book did a fantastic job of turning instances of adversity into valuable lessons. The last page of this delightful read provides thoughtful methods to teach inclusivity. I love and use the book’s methods for introducing new concepts with my 6 year old, especially when discussing disabilities. I would recommend Extraordinary Jordyn and her Bionic Ears! by Dr. Jasmine Simmonsfor all preschool to third grade classrooms.