Sound Switch Wonder
Illustrated by Katie Crumpton
Inspired by the authors’ real lives, this picture book shares what sound means for one young deaf boy as he experiences the world with cochlear implants.
Most people either can or cannot hear sound . . . but some people can do both! Meet a deaf boy with cochlear implants as he moves about his day. Sometimes he prefers not to hear, but when he wants to connect with the hearing world, he puts on his cochlear implants. How could he explain to his hearing parents what the absence of sound is like? Suddenly he has an idea—the best way he knows how to share this part of him with those he loves.
With whimsical, bright illustrations and lyrical words, Sound Switch Wonder is a sweet and gentle story about sharing and embracing differences.
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Book details
- Author
- Christine J. Ko, Owen Whang
- Illustrator
- Katie Crumpton
- Imprint
- West Margin Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 40
- Formats
- Hardcover, Paperback
- Ages
- 5-8
- Subjects
- Juvenile Fiction › Disability
Juvenile Fiction › Diversity & Multicultural
Juvenile Fiction › Family › Parents - Topics
- cochlear implants · deaf children · hearing loss · disability representation · family communication · multicultural picture book · identity and belonging
- ISBN-13
- 9781513141459 (Hardcover)9781513141466 (Paperback)
About the authors
CHRISTINE J. KO is a Professor of Dermatology and Pathology at Yale University and the author of several medical texts, including Dermatopathology: Diagnosis by First Impression and Dermatology: Visual Recognition and Case Reviews. She is the co-author, with her son Owen Whang, of Sound Switch Wonder, her debut children’s book.
Ko holds an AB from Princeton University and an MD from New York University School of Medicine. She is board certified in dermatology with a specialty certificate in dermatopathology, and has contributed chapters to Goldman-Cecil Medicine and Braunwald’s Heart Disease.
Christine lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
OWEN WHANG is a co-author of Sound Switch Wonder, a picture book he wrote with his mother, Dr. Christine J. Ko, marking his debut as a published author. He was in eighth grade when the book was published.
Whang was diagnosed with auditory neuropathy at age two and has bilateral cochlear implants. His personal experience with deafness and cochlear implants directly inspired Sound Switch Wonder.