Children's/Teen Books with Deaf Characters

Can Bears Ski?

Raymond Antrobus and Polly Dunbar

£7.99 £7.59

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? With the support of Dad Bear, Boy Bear visits an audiologist and, eventually, he gets hearing aids. Suddenly, he understands the question everyone has been asking him: "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

El Deafo

Cece Bell

£11.99 £11.39

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.

Future Girl

Asphyxia -

£10.99 £10.44

Piper's mum wants her to be 'normal', to pass as hearing and get a good job. But when peak oil hits and Melbourne lurches towards environmental catastrophe, Piper has more important things to worry about, such as how to get food. When she meets Marley, a CODA (child of Deaf adult), a door opens into a new world - where Deafness is something to celebrate rather than hide. As she dives into learning Auslan, sign language that is exquisitely beautiful and expressive, Piper finds herself falling hard for Marley.

There Will Be Lies

Nick Lake

£7.99 £7.59

When Shelby gets knocked down by a car, it's not just her leg that's broken: Shelby's world is shattered. Her mom turns up to collect her and drives off into the night, like it's the beginning of a road trip, like two criminals on the run, like Thelma and Louise or Bonnie and Clyde. And somehow, everywhere she looks, there's a coyote watching her, talking to her, telling her not to believe.

Deeplight

Frances Hardinge

£9.99 £9.49

The gods of the Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Now the gods are dead, but their remains are stirring beneath the waves ... on the streets of the Island of Lady's Crave live 14-year-old urchins Hark and his best friend Jelt. They are scavengers: diving for relics of the gods, desperate for anything they can sell. But there is something dangerous in the deep waters of the undersea, calling to someone brave enough to retrieve it. When the waves try to claim Jelt, Hark will do anything to save him.

A Quiet Kind of Thunder

Sara Barnard

£8.99 £8.54

She doesn't talk. He can't hear. They understand each other perfectly. Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life - she's been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He's deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she's assigned to look after him. To Rhys it doesn't matter that Steffi doesn't talk and, as they find ways to communicate, Steffi finds that she does have a voice, and that she's falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it. Love isn't always a lightning strike. Sometimes it's the rumbling roll of thunder .

Echo Come Home

Megan Rix

£7.99 £7.59

Eleven-year-old Jake is dreading his new school. No one understands how hard it is for him to make friends. But then Jake meets Echo. Echo is a stray puppy, training to be a hearing dog. With Echo by his side, Jake's confidence grows. But then something terrible happens and Jake and Echo are separated. Determined to find his way back to Jake, Echo sets out on the difficult journey home.

Max and the Millions: Author of Waterstones Children's Book of the Year 2024, I Am Rebel

Ross (author) Montgomery

£7.99 £7.59

Max is used to spending time alone - it's difficult to make friends in a big, chaotic school when you're deaf. He prefers to give his attention to the little things in life, like making awesome, detailed replica models. Then Mr Darrow, the school caretaker and fellow modeller, goes missing. Max must follow his parting instruction: 'Go to my room. You'll know what to do.' There on the floor he finds a pile of sand, and in the sand is Mr Darrow's latest creation ... a tiny boy, no bigger than a raisin, Luke, Prince of the Blues. And behind the tiny boy are millions of others...

Hello, Universe

Erin Entrada Kelly

£6.99 £6.64

Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his loud family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister Gen is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just act normal so that he can concentrate on basketball. They aren't friends - at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well.

Can You Feel the Noise?

Stewart Foster

£7.99 £7.59

Life is going well for Sophie. She's getting by at school, has some pretty awesome friends, and their band have made it through to the semi-finals of the Battle of the Bands competition. But when Sophie wakes up completely deaf one morning, the life she once knew seems like a distant memory. With lessons replaced by endless hospital appointments, and conversations now an exercise in lip-reading, Sophie grows quieter and quieter. Until she discovers the vibrations of sound through an old set of drums and wonders whether life onstage is actually still within reach.

Fairy Magic

Cerrie Burnell and Laura Ellen Anderson

£6.99 £6.64

When Isabelle meets a lovely fairy called Summer-Blue, she discovers a magical world, hidden in the woods at the bottom of her garden. She can't wait to share what she's learned with her family, but her sister and brothers don't believe in fairies, and they don't believe Isabelle! As a deaf child Isabelle can see and sense things that her family can't. Her hearing aid helps her to understand their world - but how can she persuade them to step into hers?

The Night the Moon Went Out: A Bloomsbury Reader: Dark Blue Book Band

Samantha Baines and Lucy Rogers

£6.99 £6.64

Aneira is a hearing-aid wearer and she is super scared of the dark. When the moon suddenly goes out one night, Aneira is on a mission to turn it back on! With the help of her owl friend, she sets off on a journey to fix the moon and overcome her fear.

Lizzie and Lucky: The Mystery of the Missing Puppies

Megan Rix and Tim Budgen

£7.99 £7.59

Meet Lizzie and Lucky: a sparky young detective and her loyal Dalmatian sidekick! Lizzie is desperate for a dog. In order to convince her parents to get one, she has to come up with 101 reasons why she needs one. Lizzie is a master at making lists, so thinking of 101 reasons is going to be easy! Especially as she is deaf and could train one to be her hearing dog. But as Lizzie begins compiling her list, she witnesses an adorable puppy being snatched away and put into a van by a mysterious-looking man. Can Lizzie solve the case - and maybe find herself a loyal friend at the same time?

Song for A Whale

Lynne Kelly

£7.99 £7.59

Iris was born deaf, but she's never let that define her; after all, it's the only life she's ever known. And until recently she wasn't even very lonely, because her grandparents are both deaf, too. But Grandpa has just died and Grandma's not the same without him. The only place Iris really feels at home anymore is in her electronics workshop where she loves taking apart antique radios. Then, during a science lesson about sound waves, Iris finds out about a whale who is unable to communicate with other whales. The lonely whale awakens something in Iris. She's determined to show him that someone in the world knows he's there. Iris works on a foolproof plan to help the whale but she soon realises that that is not enough: Iris wants to find the whale herself.

The Visible Sounds

Yin Jianling and Yu Rong

£7.99 £7.59

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 of visible sounds. The Visible Sounds brings a message of hope and joy to children living with a disability and is an inspirational reminder that dreams can become reality.

Harriet Versus The Galaxy

Samantha Baines and Jessica Flores

£6.99 £6.64

The intergalactic adventure starts at home with Harriet, who discovers that her hearing-aid can do more than she ever bargained for when she finds an alien in her room. Discovering that her family secretly work for an intergalactic agency, Harriet becomes the Earth's first line of defence as the only one who can understand the invaders. Sure, her hearing aid helps her understand aliens from across the universe, if only she could understand her own feelings.