El Deafo in Children's Books

From the Bookshelf of Children's Books…

El Deafo

Cece Bell,

David Lasky (Colorist )

Start date: August 1, 2025

Finish date: August 31, 2025

Discussion: The Newbery Club

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 5 topics — 848 comments total

The Newbery Club

* The Newbery books of 2021 - When You Trap a Tiger - D&A May 2025
By Cheryl , Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs · 4 posts · 9 views

last updated Apr 23, 2025 08:14AM

* The Newbery books of 2013 & 2014 - April 2025
By Cheryl , Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs · 10 posts · 6 views

last updated Apr 09, 2025 12:56PM

showing 6 of 6 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Feb 19, 2024 Lisa Vegan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z2024, non-fiction, zz-4star, biography, childrens, readbooks-male-author-or-illust, graphic-comics, readbooks-female-author-or-illust, school-story, goodreads-author

I read this immediately after I read True Biz which is a book I loved. I think I would have enjoyed this book even more than I did if I hadn鈥檛 just read that book. I couldn鈥檛 help but compare even though they are very different books. I probably would have also enjoyed this book even more if I鈥檇 read the author鈥檚 note in the back before I read the book.

The author鈥檚 note in the back of the book is great. I appreciate her for saying that she can tell only her story and that every deaf person has t I read this immediately after I read True Biz which is a book I loved. I think I would have enjoyed this book even more than I did if I hadn鈥檛 just read that book. I couldn鈥檛 help but compare even though they are very different books. I probably would have also enjoyed this book even more if I鈥檇 read the author鈥檚 note in the back before I read the book.

The author鈥檚 note in the back of the book is great. I appreciate her for saying that she can tell only her story and that every deaf person has their own experience and I respect that but It was such a different perspective from the author of the book True Biz that I struggled with what this author experienced. I did love how her mother tried to enroll her in ASL classes when she was young but she did not want to learn sign language. She used two different kinds of hearing aids (the Phonic Ear and more traditional hearing aids) as a child and learned to lip read. In the author鈥檚 note she says she feels comfortable in the hearing world (her entire family is hearing) even though as an adult she鈥檚 come to appreciate sign language. I don鈥檛 know if she uses sign though or how much she might use it. She was hearing until an illness at age 4 damaged her hearing. The school she first attended for just a brief time was a school for deaf children but they were not taught sign; lip reading was taught. After that she was always in mainstream school. She was able to hear her teacher with the Phonic Ear when the teacher was wearing its companion device. She had to try to lip read to communicate with everyone else.

Her resistance to learning and using sign language had to do with not wanting to look different and be the center of attention for that reason. That makes sense since most kids hate feeling different.

This is a well done story about elementary school friendships and their problems and sometimes their joys.

I got a kick reading about her particular superpower and can see why it would have made her popular with other children. Great fun!

Lovely photo of the author as a young girl in the back of the book! She was adorable.

This is a good graphic autobiography. The delightful illustrations are perfect for helping to tell this story! The book has humor and there is a lot of poignancy. It鈥檚 very touching. She seems to clearly remember her childhood years and what it felt like to be a child.

It鈥檚 well done. I really liked it. As I said, I do wish I鈥檇 read the author鈥檚 note or details about the author鈥檚 life before I read the book but I鈥檓 glad the 鈥渁 note from the author鈥� and the 鈥渁cknowledgments鈥� were included as they were interesting and they helped me better understand her life and the story that she told. The text info at the end brought my rating up to a solid 4 from maybe 3-2/3.

How funny. I know the 欧宝娱乐 count is off on my shelves including, I assume, my read shelf and my reviewed shelf, but I see that this book is counted as the 5,000th book I鈥檝e marked as read. ...more

29 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2015 alana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: graphic-novels, females-and-feminists, non-fiction, biography-memoir

El Deafo鈥檚 title and cover put me off at first. Even though I read a fair amount of stand along graphic novels, the image of this one put me off like Martha and eye patches. Once I saw it one book of the year lists, I decided to give it a try. Yah, I was dumb. This book is fabulous! Author and illustrator Cece Bell crafts a charming memoir of her elementary years during which her studies, friendships, and self confidence were greatly affected by sudden, profound hearing loss. Oh, and everyone lo ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 01, 2014 Luann rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography, juvenile, 2014, newbery-honor, nonfiction, graphic-novel

This reminded me a lot of Sisters and The Dumbest Idea Ever!, both of which I recently read. Cece Bell does an amazing job of bring us into the world of her childhood, helping us feel what she felt as a young girl with a hearing loss. I especially liked the author's note at the end. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 07, 2015 Caryn rated it it was amazing

The story is autobiographical as much as memory can allow. The author and illustrator, Cece Bell, wrote about her childhood when she went deaf because of illness and she learned to function, fit-in and thrive at school making friends with her special super powers. It is funny, touching, thought-provoking and just an excellent read.

All my thoughts at ...more

Like · see review