Growing up Deaf
Audiologists acknowledge four levels of deafness—mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Author Cece Bell is severely to profoundly deaf. At the age of four she contracted meningitis, robbing her of most of her hearing.
When she started public school, Cece was mainstreamed into a regular classroom. She knew she was different from the other kids due to her hearing loss and the fact that she had to wear a huge hearing device, the Phonic Ear, around her neck with plugs attached her ears.
In class she handed her teacher a microphone and she was amazed at how she could hear and understand everything so clearly. When the teacher left the classroom, Cece could hear her conversations in the teacher’s lounge. Little Cece had a super power and she called this super hero El Deafo.
El Deafo is a 233-page autobiography and graphic novel drawn and written by Cece Bell. The author does an amazing job of showing readers the challenges facing hearing-impaired people.
As Bell points out in her story, deafness places the hearing impaired in a bubble separating them from the rest of society and giving deaf people several options. First, they can learn to lip read, but that gets about 40-60% comprehensions. Not a great option when you’re a student. They can purchase hearing aids, but in a noisy environment or in groups larger than 2-3 people, they are useless. They could get a cochlear implant, an invasive procedure requiring brain surgery. Or they can learn American Sign Language and develop relationships with people in the Deaf Community.
Through a gripping plot, adorable pictures, and the relationships little Cece develops in elementary school, readers will walk away with a deeper understanding of their hard-of-hearing and or deaf friends and relatives.
About the Author
Cece Bell has written and illustrated several books for children, including the Geisel Honor book Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover.She lives in Virginia with her husband. When she wants to work in quiet, all she has to do is pull out her hearing aids. If that’s not a super power, I don’t know what is.
As someone who is hard of hearing I can testify to the fact that it makes me feel that I am in a bubble.