Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (2017) Greenwillow Books

About a group of young people.  There is Virgil, referred to by his family as Turtle, which he hates, the Tanaka sisters; Kaori and Gen, Kaori working as a psychic with only two customers; Virgil and Valencia, who is deaf, but wears hearing aids.  Her family doesn’t get her either.  And then there is Bull, who is a bully and thinks he knows everything, and none of it is necessarily good.

Virgil is in a special education class with Valencia, whom he has a crush on, and Bull calls him retard and calls Valencia deafo.

School is out for the summer, but Virgil feels he has failed – at least at what he wanted to do before he wouldn’t see Valencia for the next three months.  So he sets an appointment with Kaori who tells him to bring five special stones and he sets out across the woods.

Valencia has seen Karoi’s card on the bulletin board at the store and calls and sets her own appointment.

While Virgil is crossing the woods, Bull comes upon him and steals his backpack and throws it down a well – the backpack contains Virgil’s pet guinea pig, Gulliver.  Virgil sees a ladder and tries to climb down to rescue Gulliver but falls from the last rung and cannot reach it to climb out.

Virgil’s lateness worries Kaori and when Valencia gets there, she and her sister figure out that Valencia is who Virgil was wanting to say hello to.  They all go in search of the missing Virgil.

Well written and deserving of the Newbery Medal.