An illness leaves Cece with hearing loss at the age of four. Soon she starts to use a hearing aid and goes to a special school where she learns some strategies that help with her disability. When she goes to regular school, she makes a couple of friends over the years that are inconsiderate to her needs. Additionally, she becomes increasingly self-conscious of her deafness. Along the way, she develops an secret alter-ego superhero known as "El Deafo" that she uses to cope with her anger about the way she gets treated and other things that frustrate her about being deaf. Eventually, Cece finds a worthwhile friend she can trust.
The graphic novel format makes this memoir very accessible and enjoyable. Bell chose to illustrate herself and the other characters as bunnies, which is unbelievably adorable. Memoirs can be heavy at times because they represent an emotional time in the author's life. Cece's struggle to find the right friend is a great example of Havighurst's developmental task that adolescents regarding adolescents getting along with peers. Students in grades five and six would particularly enjoy reading this book and sixth grade teachers would be wise to use this book to introduce memoirs (part of the grade six ELAR TEKS). Another graphic novel memoir I would recommend to students who enjoyed El Deafo would be To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel. Siegel's book tells the story of her years as a ballerina as a young girl and teenager all the while enduring the growing animosity between her parents which eventually resulted in divorce.
No comments:
Post a Comment