By day, he is a teacher in the Spring-Ford School District. By night, he is the Vice President of the North Penn School District Board of School Directors. And somehow, Christian Fusco is about to add another title to his plate: book author.
The itinerant teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the Spring-Ford School District has been teaching since 1999, and with Spring-Ford since 2014.
“I also used to teach in Philadelphia,” said the married father of two, who resides in Towamencin. “That is where the story is set.”
Fusco said that, in his years of teaching for such a niche community of students, it is often difficult to find reading material his students can relate to. That lack of titles inspired him to write one of his own.
“deaf Not Deaf” will be released on Amazon on April 13. It is currently available for preorder now.
“It’s a book that is written for middle grade students,” he said. “The main character is a sixth-grade girl named Rian, with cochlear implants.”
Being unique in any way can make for some tough middle school years. And Rian finds this out early on.
“First day of school, one of her implants is broken by bully,” said Fusco. “She has a really rough transition.”
Thankfully, Rian is not alone in her school. She is not the only student that is deaf or hard of hearing. But, as Fusco explained, even within the deaf community, there are different camps of thought.
“There are other deaf kids at the school, signers, that use American Sign Language (ASL),” said Fusco. “But they treat her like an outsider, too.”
The writer said that this diversity, even within the deaf community, is one that few outside of that community are aware of.
“An important theme of the books is, with one of the characters having a cochlear implant, and then members of deaf community, sign language users, there is an inherent conflict between those two,” said Fusco. “If you are not a family with deaf members, you likely don’t know that.”
He said that the deaf often find their daily struggles more of a culture than a disability.
“Most people who become members of deaf community, those that use ASL, go to deaf school, they are born into families that don’t have deafness,” he said. “Since the advent of cochlear implants, more and more people who would have become members of that community now are not. These families instead opt for the implant.”
This change in technologies has created a rift within the community itself.
“It’s understandable. Parents want to be able to talk to their child, have him or her talk to cousins, siblings, go to a local school,” he said. “At same time, it is an existential threat to the deaf community, which is so small to begin with, with so few profoundly deaf people.”
A small community is now made smaller, as implants are on the rise.
“Now many of those who are deaf, their families have an option that takes away from what they view as their culture,” explained Fusco. “They see their deafness as a cultural identity, not a disability.”
Fusco said that his writing was aimed at both explaining that divide, but also finding a way for the two sides to come together.
“I wanted to explore those themes of the conflict through the development of friendship,” said Fusco.
For more information on the book, visit Fusco’s website at www.deafnotdeaf.net.
“The site is not just a book,” Fusco said, as he hired an 18-year-old former student to sign some of the dialog in book.
“If readers are interested in learning, the signs on the site are broken up by chapter,” he said. “Luis, deaf character, the stuff he signs is translated in video clips on website.”
Fusco says that, despite all his years of teaching and communicating with the deaf community, he would not even call himself “fluent” in ASL.
“I sign,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I sign ASL. It is a different grammar and structure all its own. I can fluently communicate, but true signers would not say I’m signing ASL.”
Fusco has been serving his North Penn community since being sworn into the school board in November 2017. In 2021, he seeks reelection.
He said that his experience in North Penn contributed to his story, as well.
“There has been a lot of focus on diversity and equity during my time on the school board, and I’ve always enjoyed writing,” said Fusco. “It has been lifelong dream to write a book."
Combining those themes melded well with his overarching goal.
“I wanted to try and write my own [book] and create characters so that students I work with can relate to them,” he said.
While this is his first published book, Fusco has been teaching screenwriting and film making at Bryn Mawr Film Institute for over a decade.
“I’ve produced over 30 short films,” he said.
He said his true inspiration for writing this book was to create characters his own students could relate to and “relate to their hearing loss.”
“They eventually become friends,” Fusco explains of the book’s characters, Rian and Luis. “They try to pull an epic prank on the bully, who picks on all of them pretty unbiasedly.”
His book will be sold at the Spring-Ford Middle School Book Fair in May, where Fusco will also host a signing.
For more information on preordering a copy of “deaf Not Deaf,” please click on the Amazon page here.
See also:
Area Author's Children's Book Helps Kids Cope With Corona Crisis
After Fiancé's Suicide, Local Writer Starts Magazine To Help Others Heal
Local Author Honored In 2019 Indie Book Awards
Local Children’s Author To Host Book Signing, Public Reading At Barnes And Noble Next Week
Obit: Amie Nicole Harwick, Therapist And Author, Dies At 38
