Deaf Child Crossing by Marlee Matlin. (Simon and Schuster, 2002)

When Cindy, who is hearing, moves in down the street from Megan, who is deaf, the nine-year-olds quickly become best friends. Megan wears hearing aids and lip-reads, but the girls become even closer as Cindy begins to learn sign language. Problems crop up when her attempts to be helpful offend Megan’s sense of independence, and things get even worse at summer camp, where they meet another deaf girl, Lizzie.

Nobody’s Perfect by Marlee Matlin. (Simon and Schuster, 2002)

Megan can’t wait for her positively purple birthday party, but her perfect plans get derailed when a new girl, Alexis, joins her class and rebuffs Megan’s invitation and brushes off all of Megan’s attempts to be friendly.  When Megan teaches Alexis’s autistic brother some basic sign language, it opens up communication with both him and Alexis.

Leading Ladies by Marlee Matlin. (Simon and Schuster, 2007)

Rivalries abound when Megan’s fourth-grade class puts on a production of “The Wizard of Oz” and she has her heart set on playing Dorothy…but so does her friend Lizzie.

Gaps in Stone Walls by John Neufeld. (Athenuem, 1996)

In the late 19th century, hereditary deafness affected at least 1/5 of the population of Chilmark, a town on Martha’s Vineyard. Among this group is Merry Skiffe, an artistic 12-year-old whose peaceful life unravels when wealthy miser Ned Nickerson is murdered on a dark road one Saturday night and Merry finds herself among the four residents of Chilmark who have no alibi.

Apple is my Sign by Mary Riskind. (Houghton Mifflin, 1981)

A 10-year-old boy returns to his parents’ apple farm for the holidays after his first term at a school for the deaf in Philadelphia.