8. El Deafo by Cece Bell

 

8. El Deafo by Cece Bell

Bell, C. (2014). El Deafo. NY: Abrams

This is a graphic novel memoir in which author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age.  When she begins kindergarten, she goes to a school for the deaf where everyone was like her.  The next school year she began first grade in a regular school where she is introduced to the Phonic Ear, a powerful and very awkward hearing aid. The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear her teacher better in school (including some things she was not intended to hear), but it also makes her feel awkward and isolated from her classmates. As Cece moves from grade to grade, she wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. Through her younger elementary grades, she becomes friends with several girls, but the fit is never quite right. Everything comes together for Cece in her 5^th grade year. After she opens to her classmates and one special boy, her classmates begin to understand about her disability. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become "El Deafo, Listener for All. Then she finds her true friend.

Acceptance is a major and important theme in the book.  Acceptance –fitting in –is a struggle for Cece.  She wants to make friends, but she seems to close herself off to keep from getting hurt.  In doing that, her classmates and neighbors never see the real her. When she finally begins to open to people, she sees it wasn’t that they didn’t like her, they just didn’t understand her.  I would share this book with any student with a hearing impairment, as well as their classmates.  It really gives you an insight to what it is like to go through school being deaf.

 .   I might also teach about foreshadowing when discussing the book with a class.  It ends when Cece is in fifth grade.  What happens to her next?  How does she deal with being deaf in her teenage years?  The link below is to a lesson plan about comparing Cece with another deaf boy students watch on a YouTube video.  They then write a compare/contrast essay about the two.

https://katherinewanner.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/el-deafo-classroom-activities/