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Title: El Deafo

Author: Cece Bell

Illustrator: Cece Bell

Colorist: David Lasky

Published: September 2nd, 2014 by Harry N. Abrams

Genre & Format: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction (Memoir)

Key Themes: Animals, Bullying, Disabilities, Friendship, #OwnVoices, School

Reading Level: Third Grade, Grades 4-7

ISBN: 9781419712173

Content/Trigger Warnings:

Ableism

Bullying

Publisher’s Synopsis: 

“Starting at a new school is scary, especially with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece’s class was deaf. Here, she’s different. She’s sure the kids are staring at the Phonic Ear, the powerful aid that will help her hear her teacher. Too bad it also seems certain to repel potential friends.

Then Cece makes a startling discovery. With the Phonic Ear she can hear her teacher not just in the classroom but anywhere her teacher is in the school—in the hallway … in the teacher’s lounge … in the bathroom! This is power. Maybe even superpower! Cece is on her way to becoming El Deafo, Listener for All. But the funny thing about being a superhero is that it’s just another way of feeling different … and lonely. Can Cece channel her powers into finding the thing she wants most, a true friend?”

#OwnVoices Review: Ahmed Khalifa/ Hear Me Out! [CC]

“The girl is also trying to build relationship and friendship with certain people it seem to have repelled potential friends. That whole hearing aid situation because she was embarrassed about it and a bit shy about it and didn’t want to have that on display all the time and she was just not liking it at all.

So it was a bit of a tricky situation at that stage and the thing is from reading that, I felt like I was reading my own diary. I felt like I was going through the exactly the same thing because in school you want to fit in that just the way the nature of the game is. You want to fit in.

But it’s quite difficult to do that when you stand out in a way that you don’t want to stand out.

[…]

But it’s great for whether it’s[sic] children, young adults, even adults themselves, they want to understand that journey for a young child, getting hearing aids on and going to a hearing school, not a deaf school, going to a mainstream school.

[…]

And it’s a great way for you to gain an insight of what can happen if you are a hearing person and you don’t know how it works. And it’s actually a very close representation of my own experience when I was going through primary school and to some extent high school as well.

[…]

And even if you are a d/Deaf yourself you might get, find it very relatable. It’s kind of comforting because not only yourself is going through this journey. Someone else has gone through as well. And it’s quite comforting to know that it’s not just you, it’s everyone.

And some people may have said to you that “you’re being silly” or you are just exaggerating” or “you’re just being annoying about that”, “get over it”. But the thing is it’s just stupid if you say that, it is stupid if you say that. And by reading this book and some others, you get an insight of another person’s life and you realise[sic] you’re not stupid at all. It does happen to more people than you think.”

Additional Resources:

Purchase

Kirkus Review

The Washington Post Review