El Deafo

Title: El Deafo

Bibliographic information:

Author: Cece Bell

Illustrator: David Lasky

• Library Binding: 248 pages
• Publisher: Turtleback; Turtleback School & Library ed. edition (September 2, 2014)
• Language: English

Reader's Annotation:  Cece wants to find a true friend, but she’s afraid that people will never want to be her friend when they realize she is deaf.  Can she discover her superpower and make friends?

Interest Level: Ages 8-9+

Lexile level: 420

Awards, if applicable: Eisner Award

Newbery Honor Award

Plot summary: After Cece loses her hearing, she goes to a school for the deaf and she really enjoys it.  But then, she enters a mainstream public school and she hates it!  She doesn’t want to be “special”, she doesn’t want to be different from everyone else.  She lip reads and she has a very large hearing aid - which gives her a superpower!  She can hear EVERYTHING (from bathroom visits to gossip) that her teacher says.  Her classmates are impressed - but can Cece learn to find a friend?

Critical review:

The most compelling aspect of this book is how it treats deafness as a disability.  There is the obvious ways - characters are well rounded and interesting.  But the other way that is particularly striking is through the use of the visual.  When our heroine’s Phonic Ear is running out of batteries, the font in that section gets more and more faded.  When people are talking and the heroine cannot hear them - the reader cannot see them either.  They give a sensory feedback which allows the reader to empathize with the character.  

Why include it?

This book isn’t just a book about a girl with disabilities.  This book isn’t just a book about growing up in the seventies. It is a compelling story in graphic novel format, with clean lines and a high range of appeal.  An overall wonderful book!