I really enjoyed LeZotte's first novel Show Me a Sign and was hopeful this sequel would be equally engaging. Mary is scarred from her experience in the previous novel and still experiences nightmares and anxiety related to her kidnapping. She is weary, more wary of others, and is unsettled. When she has an opportunity to help another girl learn sign language, she sees this as a opportunity to grow and as a step to becoming a teacher. Little does she know this experience will become one that is perilous rather than purposeful. The situation of her charge is both mysterious and terrifying and Mary does not feel up to the task of helping her when the other adults in the household abuse and neglect the girl.
The author does a wonderful job of explaining deaf culture, she also tackles racism, sexism, and other issues. It almost feels as if the author trying to address too many social issues in one book. While the story is suspenseful the ending is not as satisfying as the first book. ( )

Not as polished as Show Me a Sign, and I'm in two minds about whether that is a weakness, or whether it opens more windows into what Deaf narrative structure feels like. Sometimes the transitions between paragraphs or thoughts feel abrupt to me, but LaZotte's storytelling is as compelling as ever and it's really good to be back with Mary Lambert again. The child she helps and the mystery she solves are all too believable examples of cruelty to the non-hearing and non-white people. Sometimes Mary's thoughtful and sensitive interactions with Native, Black and women characters in the book feel a little too modern, but there are always people who reject prejudice, and she is a believable example, as she considers the world through a lens of how she's been treated.

edited to add -- author commented that the narrative structure is deliberate, which in my mind takes this story to a whole new level.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )

1. A person is intelligent even if they don't have language.
2. Where you come from is less important than what you achieve.
3. Never give up on a student. (46)

Mrs. Pye gives Mary this advice when Mary agrees to take on an unusual case: a girl who doesn't speak at a house called the Vale. When Mary arrives there, she's happy to be reunited with Nora, but the sinister butler seems determined to keep Mary away from her charge, and when Mary does get to see her, she's horrified at her condition: chained and filthy. Can Mary teach the girl to sign so she can communicate? Can she learn the girl's real story?

In a worthy sequel to Show Me A Sign, Mary ventures into the world outside her community, runs up against all kinds of prejudices - even among her allies - but triumphs, ultimately reuniting Beatrice with her own community on Cape Cod.

Back matter includes more information on hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard, the Wampanoag Nation, the Indian Child Welfare Act, the poem "Ladybird, Ladybird," the Vale, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller, and the Monster of Glamis.

Quotes

I look at her with new eyes. She has been made small and miserable and powerless, not by nature, nor the outside world, but by those entrusted to nurture and care for her. (139)

What does [Mary Wollstonecraft] say about men who claim to support the cause, then take charge? (233)

The difference between victims and survivors is whether you're found in time. (265) ( )

Three years after being kidnapped and made into a “live specimen” to determine the cause of her deafness, 14-year-old Mary Lambert is asked to leave Martha’s Vineyard for the mainland again. This time to help a young girl to communicate with sign language. Mary can’t help but wonder if a child of eight who has had no prior experience with language is even capable of grasping what she needs to communicate. Still weary of leaving her Deaf community and being around people who don’t sign, Mary gets encouragement from her old teacher and agrees to go.

But, when she arrives at the manor, Mary quickly discovers there is so much more to the girl’s story, more than she could have ever imagined, and now, giving the girl freedom has much more meaning… and risk.

Set Me Free is the sequel to the book Show Me a Sign. Though Mary references events that have happened in the first book, Set Me Free can still stand as its own story. Like the first book, Set Me Free explores prejudices against those who are different: Deaf, Indigenous, Black, Poor, and Female. It also explored colonialism and feminism.

I got really into this book and finished it in a day because I kept flipping pages, wanting to find out how Mary was going to help this young girl out. This is a great historical fiction book for middle grade readers as it brings up a lot of stuff - LeZotte even has footnotes in the back of the book to explain things more. It's also nice to see some American Sign Language in a book with it's language and culture talked about. Mary even brings up the regional nuances of Martha's Vineyard ASL, which is nice to see.

I would recommend this book as a sequel or even a stand alone to both middle grade readers and those older. ( )

children's middlegrade/teen historical fiction - Deaf culture in historic Martha's Vineyard town (where at one time 1/4 of the population was born deaf and so everyone in town knew at least some sign language); themes of discrimination and potential childhood abuse; occasional scripture as would fit the time period and setting.

This is the second part of Mary Lambert's story, and while it can work as a stand-alone, it will be easier to slip in with the characters and setting if you read the award-winning Show Me a Sign first. With no knowledge of the first book's events, I had to work harder to figure out the relationships between the characters for the first several chapters, but the idea of a town where everyone knew sign language was so fascinating to me that I wanted to know all about this place.

Between the historical setting and the somewhat advanced vocabulary, I would put the reading level slightly higher than your average middle grade novel, but if the reader is interested in Deaf culture (i.e. is Deaf or knows someone who is Deaf) there is plenty incentive to read this series. I love that this was written by a Deaf librarian and that she has dedicated this book and so much of her time to helping her young deaf and hard of hearing patrons (some of whose families do not sign) through what could be severe isolation in this pandemic. ( )