Review of “El Deafo” by Cece Bell

Rating: 5 star review

Summary: We follow Cece Bell from Kindergarten to 5th grade! Cece lost her hearing as a child in the 70s. She is fit with a hearing aid that has a box that she wears. This book follows her going to school, making friends, having boy crushes, and just her story. This is a middle school age book.

My thoughts:

I have been wanting to read this book for a long time! I am so glad that I did! I can see why it won so many awards! I read a lot of graphic novels (not always for children), and this has to be one of my favorites of all time.

This book was simply a great graphic novel. The graphics were simply great: colors and pictures. I loved how all the characters were rabbits. I thought it was great to use rabbits with their large ears.

It discusses a lot of important themes for children. Accepting and not bullying being the main themes. I think every child can relate to wanting to make friends, being accepted, and not wanting to be bullied. With sticking out in school with a large hearing aid, you watch as she navigates the normal adolescent stuff while standing out. Take for instance, she has to walk up to the teacher on the 1st day of school (a day when you want to be invisible) to hand her a microphone for her to hear.

I loved how the main character thought of herself as a superhero. Her self love really made me happy too. Her stories mixed the sad stories with funny and realistic ones mixed in.

The author went into a lot of detail about her feelings as well as her story. I enjoyed the entire book.

Trigger warnings: Bullying, loneliness

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