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Summary

El Deafo is Cece Bell’s graphic memoir (what’s a graphic memoir?) about her childhood after she becomes profoundly deaf as the result of coming down with meningitis when she’s four years old. It’s bad enough to have trouble hearing and comprehending but it’s awful to have to wear the Phonic Ear in school. How Cece begins to move from feeling ashamed to be different to being “El Deafo” who has a friend is the heart of this memoir, which is both humorous and poignant.


The Story

Cece Bell is a typical little kid until, at the age of four, she becomes ill with meningitis, which leaves her profoundly deaf. After testing, she’s fitted with a hearing aid she wears in a pouch around her neck that has cords with what she calls “ear globs” that fit in her ears. Cece still has trouble hearing and comprehending what she’s hearing.

When she attends a school for the hearing impaired, she makes some progress. In describing herself and the other students, she says, “Most of the time we are lost, drifting along on our own planets.  But we are together in the same universe, at least.” However, that doesn’t last.

When her family moves to a small town, everything changes. While summer is difficult, things are much worse when school starts. Cece is attending the local public school and in order to be able to hear, she must wear a large Phonic Ear on her chest with cords attached to ear globs leading up to her ears. Cece is embarrassed. She is acutely aware she is different and she thinks that’s bad.

She’s ashamed.

It takes time, a friendship made and lost, time without her Phonic Ear when the microphone breaks, a crush, learning that the Phonic Ear gives her the ability to hear people at a distance, something her classmates can’t do, and the powerful feeling of being El Deafo to help Cece find a friend and become more comfortable with her life and being different. 

What happened when Cece Bell grew up? In her author’s note, she says, “I found that with a little creativity and a lot of dedication, any difference can be turned into something amazing. Our differences are our super powers.”

As for why all the characters are portrayed as rabbits, Cece Bell said, “Rabbits have big ears and great hearing. Showing a rabbit whose ears do not work, in a crowd of rabbits whose ears do work, seemed like a great metaphor for someone who has lost her hearing.” (BookPage Interview: Cece Bell, 9/14)

Author’s Note Sheds Light on Being Deaf and El Deafo

In an interesting and informative author’s note directed to young readers, Cece Bell discusses ways in which people may lose their hearing, the amount of hearing loss an individual may have and, most importantly, the various responses people make to deafness. She briefly discusses Deaf culture, sign language, hearing aids and more. Bell then discusses El Deafo and how the book relates to her own life.

As to how much the book is based on her own experiences, Cece Bell explains, “El Deafo is based on my childhood (and on the secret name I really did give myself back then).…It’s also important to note that while I was writing and drawing the book, I was more interested in capturing the specific feelings I had as a kid with hearing loss than in being 100 percent accurate with the details.”

The Author and Illustrator

Cece Bell has written and illustrated a number of children’s books, including Bee-Wigged, Itty Bitty, Sock Monkey Goes to Hollywood, Sock Monkey Boogie Woogie, Sock Monkey Rides Again and the beginning reader book Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover, a 2013 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award Honor Book. She also illustrated the picture book Crankee Doodle by her husband Tom Angleberger, the author of the middle grade Origami Yoda series.

Online El Deafo Resources From the Publisher

On the Abrams’ site, you can watch a video of Cece Bell discussing her childhood and El Deafo.  You can also download the Amulet Books Graphic Novel Teaching Guide: El Deafo by Cece Bell. The three-page guide includes a photograph of Cece Bell as a child wearing her Phonic Ear (as does the very last page of the book), a variety of discussion questions related to language arts, science and history/social studies, as well as specific activities in reading, writing, history/social studies and science.

My Recommendation

I recommend El Deafo for ages 8 to 12. I also think it will appeal to many young teens, including reluctant readers. The author does a wonderful job of both showing and telling about her childhood in a way that evokes readers’ empathy. In view of the fact that much of Cece’s discomfort came from feeling she not only was different because of her hearing loss but looked different because of the Phonic Ear, telling the story as a graphic memoir was an inspired choice.  (Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams, 2014. ISBN: 9781419710209)

More Recommended Reading

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China is another excellent graphic memoir. Set in the mid-1970s, author Na Liu wrote about growing up in China. Andres Vera Martinez illustrated the book. There are also several entertaining graphic novels your middle grade reader is apt to enjoy. They include: A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson, an adaptation of Madeline L’Engle’s award-winning fantasy and science fiction classic A Wrinkle in Time. For a fairy tale with an Old West twist, I recommend Rapunzel’s Revengeby Shannon and Dean Hale, with illustrations by Nathan Hale.  Kids who enjoy manga will like Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.