Rian is starting her sixth grade year in a new home and at a new school in Northeast Philadelphia. On her first day, she is greeted by Shack, the class bully, who wastes no time breaking one of her cochlear implants. She's used to feeling like an outsider, but nothing could prepare her for life at John Hancock Elementary. Her teachers can't pronounce her name, the "normal" kids think she's Deaf and the Deaf kids think she's a joke. deaf not Deaf is a story about an unlikely friendship between Rian and Luis, two twelve year old sixth graders who break down communication barriers and learn to understand deafness in very different ways. Linked by their common enemy, Rian, Luis and their group of misfit friends hatch a plan to get revenge on Shack once and for all...but will their ghoulish plan be an epic success or come back to haunt them in the end?