About this item
By turns heart-tugging and hilarious, Myron Uhlberg’s memoir tells the story of growing up as the hearing son of deaf parents—and his life in a world that he found unaccountably beautiful, even as he longed to escape it.“Does sound have rhythm?” my father asked. “Does it rise and fall like the ocean? Does it come and go like the wind?”Such were the kinds of questions that Myron Uhlberg’s deaf father asked him from earliest childhood, in his eternal quest to decipher, and to understand, the elusive nature of sound. Quite a challenge for a young boy, and one of many he would face. Uhlberg’s first language was American Sign Language, the first sign he learned: “I love you.” But his second language was spoken English—and no sooner did he learn it than he was called upon to act as his father’s ears and mouth in the stores and streets of the neighborhood beyond their silent apartment in Brooklyn.
About the Author
Myron Uhlberg is the award-wining and critically acclaimed author of several children's books, including "Dad, Jackie, and Me," which won the American Library Association Schneider Award, the 2006 Storytelling World Award, the IBBY Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities, and International Reading Association Teacher's Choice Award. His children's book, A Storm Called "Katrina," received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist. His latest children's book, "The Sound Of All Things," was named Best Children's Books of the Year (starred) -- Bank Street College of Education, 2017.His adult memoir, Hands of my Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Book, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and a finalist for the MS Books For a Better Life, for Inspirational Memoir. And has been optioned for a theatrical motion picture. Myron was featured in the Ken Burns documentary film, Jackie Robinson. He has appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation with Neil Conan. And he was a Writer-in-Residence at Gallaudet University. He is the first-born son of two deaf parents. His first language was ASL (American Sign Language) . Myron attended Brandeis University in 1951 (when the school had not as yet had a graduating class) on a football scholarship, and was coached by Benny Friedman, two-time college All American, enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Myron started on the Brandeis football team for four years, and was subsequently inducted into the Brandeis Hall of Fame.After graduation in 1955, he served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He then spent the next 40 years in the men's fashion clothing business. In his spare time, he ran twenty marathons, including the Boston and New York marathons, four times each.His first book was published when he was sixty-six years old; a geriatric wonder. All who knew him asked, "What took so long? "
