Signposts: A Graphic Novel

Amy LaPonte is a deaf 6th grader, mainstreamed in public school, navigating peer pressure, frenemies, and mean girl drama while trying desperately to fit in with her hearing peers, and just be “normal.”

While researching a current events topic for school, she witnesses on TV a protest called “Deaf President Now,” where students at a deaf university demand their first Deaf president. Though Amy has not actualized her own deafness, the event sparks a revolution inside her as well.

As the protests escalate, against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and other 1980s cultural touchpoints, she slowly confronts her parents and peers, who don’t yet see her for who she truly is. Most importantly, Amy begins to understand and embrace herself, a Queer deaf girl with a passion for music, her first crush, and a growing desire to learn ASL and become part of the Deaf community.

Deaf culture and language are highly visual, and the graphic novel form helps hearing readers see how deaf people experience the world. Signposts brings much-needed deaf/disability representation to the graphic novel space.