Set Me Free (Book #2 in the Show Me a Sign Trilogy)

Three years after being kidnapped as a "live specimen" in a cruel experiment to determine the cause of her deafness, Mary Lambert has grown weary of domestic life on Martha's Vineyard, and even of her once beloved writing.

So when an old acquaintance summons her to an isolated manor house outside Boston to teach a young deaf girl to communicate, Mary agrees. But can a child of eight with no prior language be taught? And is Mary up to the task? With newfound purpose, Mary arrives only to discover that there is much more to the girl's story--and the circumstances of her confinement--than she ever could have imagined. Suddenly, teaching her and freeing her from the prison of her isolation, takes on much greater meaning, and peril.

Riveting and complex, delicately nuanced and fervently feminist, Set Me Free is a masterful stand-alone companion to Show Me a Sign, and a searing exposé of ableism, racism, and colonialism that will challenge you to think differently about the dignity and capacity within every human being.

Ann Clare LeZotte is the author of the Schneider Family Book Award-winning novel Show Me a Sign, which was named a best book of the year by NPR, KirkusReviews, School Library Journal, the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library and American Indians in Children's Literature, and was a finalist for the New England Independent Booksellers Association and the Jane Addams Children's Book Awards.

A passionate advocate for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, as well as underserved youth from marginalized communities, Ann worked for many years as a youth librarian in Gainesville, Florida. Ann says, During the pandemic, I've kept in touch with Deaf library youth at home with families who don't sign. The isolation is real -- there will be a long-lasting gap. It's getting harder to tell them all their dreams can come true. But continuing Mary Lambert's story, the darkness and the light, shows them that they're still counted in. In her free time, Ann enjoys yoga and walking her dog Perkins.