Skip to product information
1 of 1

Scholastic Press

Set Me Free

Set Me Free

Regular price $16.98 USD
Regular price $18.98 USD Sale price $16.98 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

57 in stock

A riveting standalone companion to the Schneider Family Book Award winner, Show Me a Sign by Deaf author and librarian, Ann Clare LeZotte.

"Instantly captivating...will keep readers hooked until the very end...A simultaneously touching and gripping adventure." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Full of adventure and twists...a gripping tale of historical fiction." -- Booklist

Mary seems set to become a true hero-adventurer, an almost larger-than-life sleuth, teacher, and woman of action; and while the story's subject matter is serious in its engagement with history's ills, LeZotte conveys a sense of real enjoyment in having Mary disrupt...the prejudices and expectations of the status quo. -- The Horn Book

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.



Author: Ann Clare Lezotte
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Published: 09/21/2021
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 8.41h x 5.80w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781338742497
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.2
Point Value: 7
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 513072 / Set Me Free


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2021
Booklist 09/15/2021 pg. 53
Horn Book Magazine 11/01/2021 pg. 106
School Library Journal 12/01/2021 pg. 89

About the Author

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, Kirkus Reviews, 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.

View full details