Books with Deaf Characters Post 5 – Dad, Jackie, and Me
I’ve actually just finished reading Hands of My Father which is a memoir by Myron Uhlberg, a hearing guy born to two deaf parents. Which is really good, well-written, and funny, btw. But this post isn’t about that.
He’s also written some children’s books. And Dad, Jackie, and Me is one of them. It’s a picturebook, illustrated by Colin Bootman.
It’s a work of fiction, but it’s based in reality, as the story also appears in non-fictional form in the memoir. He and his father go to all of Jackie Robinson’s games one season and cheer him on. They make a scrapbook. And well, that’s mostly it. A hearing kid, his deaf father, and the connection he feels to this pioneering black baseball player.
At the end, the author writes a nonfiction bit at the end about this connection and about a deaf baseball player in the 1800s.
It’s kind of cool seeing this after reading the memoir. With the pictures and all. Even if I’m not into baseball. Or reading about baseball. And you can’t fault his characterization of the deaf character or sign language or any of that, obviously!
Deaf Character: Middle-aged white man (it doesn’t say it in the story and it is a work of fiction, but Myron Uhlberg’s father was born Jewish), signs, speaks not very well.
Relationship to Main Character: Father
Genre: Historical, sports
Age Level of Book: Picturebook
