Aside from making school easier, the Phonic Ear gives Bell a superpower: when her teachers forget to doff the microphone, she can still hear them anywhere in the school (including the bathroom!). In this graphic memoir, she tells readers about the friends and family who help her adjust, the frustration she feels when learning to communicate, and the devices she uses to assist her hearing, most notably the Phonic Ear, a large machine that connects to a microphone her teachers wear and amplifies sounds in her hearing aids. And we are privileged to be able to watch her.When cartoonist Bell was four years old, a case of meningitis left her severely deaf. Along the way we learn a great deal about growing up deaf in a hearing world–the misheard words, the challenges of lip reading, the frustration of watching TV with no closed captioning, what it feels like to wear hearing aids, and much more.īut it’s the universal questions of childhood (and certainly of adulthood, too) that make this a real story about a real kid–Who am I? How do I fit in? Are you truly my friend? Cece finds her answers. Before her family moved from the city to a smaller town, Cece attended a kindergarten where she was taught lip-reading but not American Sign Language.Įl Deafo tells the story of Cece’s years in a mainstream grade school. In this graphic novel memoir–a comic if you will–we enter the grade-school experience of children’s book author and illustrator Cece Bell, who lost her hearing during a bout of meningitis at age four. And being different feels a lot like being alone.” Her power? Super hearing! Whenever life threatens to overwhelm her, Cece reminds her self that she is a superhero–El Deafo! But as she points out, “Superheroes might be awesome, but they are also different. FLUSH!”Ĭece suddenly feels like a superhero–somewhat like Batman on TV with all his technology. Lufton’s conversations in the teachers’ lounge. And, to her astonishment, Cece can hear Mrs. Lufton, speaks into the microphone she wears around her neck, Cece can hear every word.
When Cece starts first grade in the 1970s, she not only faces meeting new kids in a new school in a new town, but she has a bulky “brand-new superpowerful, just-for-school hearing aid: The Phonic Ear” strapped to her chest.
(For Middle Grade-Schoolers) Release date: September 2, 2014.
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