Deaf Characters in adolescent literature
I have been researching the portrayals and perceptions of Deaf Characters in adolescent literature and over the last year I have started publishing a newsletter and blog which assists in recommending books with Deaf Characters in adolescent books.

Each time I give a presentation about my research, students and educators continually give me feedback that I need to let the schools for the deaf know about my site. I am hoping that you will share this email or my blog site with your teachers and librarians so that they may assist young people in selecting interesting books with deaf characters.

The Blog includes a '100+ and Counting' post which currently includes 167 contemporary books with deaf characters, and features book reviews and interviews with over twenty authors since May 2007.

The Blog/newsletter has been featured in newsletters and on websites including:
School Library Journal A Fuse #8 Production Review by Elizabeth Bird, a librarian who has served on Newbery and written for Horn Book (September 27, 2007)

About.com Deaf Characters in Literature Blog (website post August 26, 2007


--
Sharon Pajka-West, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Applied Literacy
Gallaudet University
Check out my blog on Adolescent Literature with Deaf Characters!
http://pajka.blogspot.com/

The Science of the Senses: Hearing
Airing Thursday January 10 at 8pm on CBC-TV & Thursday January 17 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld

Hearing music - perhaps the most the sublime gift of our sense of hearing. But why is music so important to us and why does it have such a profound effect on the human heart?

In Hearing, episode one of The Science of the Senses, finding the answer to that question will take us on a journey through the ear, into the brain and right into the heart of the human psyche. Along the way, we will meet world class neuroscientists, Daniel Levitin, Oliver Sacks and Steven Pinker, and a host of extraordinary people--from a woman whose brain cannot "hear" music to a deaf musician who is one of the world’s top percussionists.

We’ll also meet Dr. Blake Papsin, of Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto, to explore how a revolutionary little device called the cochlear implant is restoring hearing to the deaf, and visit a family of four, who demonstrate how our remarkably adaptable brains can learn to hear, even after a lifetime of silence.

A feast for the eyes and ears, The Science of the Senses: Hearing is a celebration of this remarkable sense and what our marvellous brains have done with it.