Hear Me

“This empathetic, appealing story highlights Rayne’s journey to self-acceptance while also exploring her complicated but loving family relationships, loyal friendships, and a little romance.” –Booklist

“Cerra writes an extremely powerful story that seems to accurately translate the experience of a young girl experiencing a disability as well as the social consequences that come with it.”-Children’s Literature

“Hear Me is a thoughtful and empowering story about standing up and speaking out even when no one will listen. I’ll be thinking about Rayne long after closing the book.”–Lynne Kelly, author of Song for a Whale

“Hear Me is a brave and important book. Rayne’s story will open hearts and minds, and give young readers courage and hope.”–Jarrett Lerner, author of the EngiNerds

“Asterisks replace unheard words of dialogue in this moving middle grade novel, based on the author’s own life, that follows an adolescent girl’s struggle with both progressive hearing loss and her parents’ insistence that she get cochlear implants.”–The New York Times Book Review

“Kerry Cerra has written an important, immersive read filled with so much heart. We are quickly pulled into Rayne’s world as she navigates her hearing loss journey from self-doubt to self-acceptance. I was cheering for Rayne every step of the way!” –Danielle Joseph, author of Sydney A. Frankel’s Summer Mix-Up

Kerry O’Malley Cerra is an award-winning author of middle grade books. Her first novel, Just a Drop of Water, landed on five state reading lists, won the Crystal Kite Award, a Florida Book Award, and was named to VOYA’s Top Shelf Fiction list for 2014. Her second novel, Hear Me, is out now. Stay tuned for her forthcoming books, Make a Little Wave, (Oct. 1, 2024 from Carolrhoda Books, Lerner Publishing) and a nonfiction picture book, The Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA’s Deaf Bioastronauts (March 2026 from Little, Brown BFYR). Kerry’s work has received praise from The New York Times, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, VOYA, and the Horn Book Guide calling her stories moving, perceptive, well-developed, and woven with an expert hand. Kerry, a former high school media specialist and social studies teacher, lives in South Florida with her husband and two poorly behaved rescue dogs.