El Deafo

       Bell, C., & Lasky, D. (2014). El Deafo. New York, NY: Amulet Books.

El Deafo is a story about a young girl, Cece, who became deaf after a illness and how she tries to fit into the world of hearing. Cece faces challenges as see goes from a deaf school to a public school. She begins to worry how the students may see her and she feels very insecure about her bulky hearing aid that she has to wear. Not only does she have to wear a hearing aid she must also have her teachers speak into a device that transmits what they say to her, and sometimes the teachers forget to turn off the device when they're outside the classroom. Of course, school is nothing compared to making friends and having her friends understand how Cece feels. Being deaf doesn't make Cece incapable of doing anything, and that is what Cece realizes in the story.

This book is a great way of introducing young children to the world of people with disabilities and how they might feel about their differences. I love the illustrations of the book, because it was setup like a comic book and the color made everything pop out even more. This story is also similar to books like, George by Alex Gino and Rules by Cythia Lord. These books offer chances to accept people for their differences and acknowledge the fact that even though they are different they are not handicapped or incapable of doing what others can.