Hear Me

Author: Kerry O'Malley Cerra

Paperback

"After being diagnosed with progressive hearing loss, Rayne resists her parents' efforts to "fix" her and rethinks her own assumptions about what her condition means for her."--

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Summary

"After being diagnosed with progressive hearing loss, Rayne resists her parents' efforts to "fix" her and rethinks her own assumptions about what her condition means for her."--

Description

A year after being diagnosed with hearing loss, twelve-year-old Rayne is doing her best to live a “normal” life and act like nothing has changed.

But her hearing keeps failing her. Even with hearing aids, she has trouble following conversations and hanging out with her friends the way she used to. Her grades are slipping, surfing is now a wipeout, and she can’t understand the lyrics of her favorite singer’s new songs. Rayne’s parents are pushing for her to get cochlear implants, which could restore her hearing—though she would hear sounds differently than she did before her hearing loss.

Rayne isn't convinced the surgery for CIs is worth the risks and challenges. In fact, she's terrified of it. She begs her parents to consider other options, but they're not budging.

With the surgery looming, Rayne sets off on a search for alternatives. Along the way, she discovers that “normal” can have many meanings—and that even though her ears may be broken, she is not.

"Asterisks replace unheard words of dialogue in this moving middle grade novel, based on the author's own life, that follows an adolescent girl's struggle with both progressive hearing loss and her parents' insistence that she get cochlear implants."—The New York Times Book Review

"Rayne is a likable protagonist, and readers will root for her. An interesting story of a particular deaf experience."—Kirkus Reviews

Critic Reviews

"Cerra writes an extremely powerful story that seems to accurately translate the experience of a young girl experiencing a disability as well as the social consequences that come with it."–Children's Literature

About the Author

Kerry O'Malley Cerra is an award-winning author of middle grade books. Her first novel, Just a Drop of Water, landed on five state reading lists, won the Crystal Kite Award, a Florida Book Award, and was named to VOYA's Top Shelf Fiction list for 2014. Her second novel, Hear Me, is out now. Stay tuned for her forthcoming books, Make a Little Wave, (Oct. 1, 2024 from Carolrhoda Books, Lerner Publishing) and a nonfiction picture book, The Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA's Deaf Bioastronauts (March 2026 from Little, Brown BFYR). Kerry's work has received praise from The New York Times, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, VOYA, and the Horn Book Guide calling her stories moving, perceptive, well-developed, and woven with an expert hand. Kerry, a former high school media specialist and social studies teacher, lives in South Florida with her husband and two poorly behaved rescue dogs.