“When you grow up your differences actually become your super powers.”
Cece Bell, El Deafo
For the past few years Edinger House has read a new book in literature circles in the spring. Last year it was Africa is My Home and the year before it was the Newbery winner, The One and Only Ivan. This year, after falling in love with Cece Bell’s graphic novel memoir, El Deafo, Ms. Edinger chose it. Rereading in preparation a few weeks before the Newbery awards were announced had her realized that it had a shot for that and so she wrote a blog post advocating for it to win. Of course, she was over-the-top thrilled when it got an honor and very pleased she had already decided (and gotten the books) for the class to read. Happily, they all loved it as much as she did!
After reading and then discussing the book in small groups and as a class, the students all wrote responses on their blogs. Here are quotes from these.
This book is very inspiring because it shows how being deaf, didn’t stop her. Stevie Wonder was blind, but he still is a great musician. It shows that if you have disability, use it to your advantage.
I have recently read a wonderful graphic novel called El Deafo…. El Deafo won the 2015 Newbery Honor for its amazing writing.
Personally I loved the book and wish there was a sequel. It is great and even just looking at the cover you can tell that it is gong to be great. I extremely enjoyed the humor….I was curious why she made all the characters have bunny ears. I thought maybe it was because Cece Bell was showing what a big thing hearing is in the book but I still didn’t understand why she thought of bunny ears not dog ears or something. Whatever the reason it definitely made the book funnier. A big theme of the book is friendship. Most books have a big theme of friendship but this is different. An example is Charlotte’s Web. A big theme of that book is friendship but it’s about having an amazing friendship and not wanting to let it go. But in El Deafo it is about Cece trying to find a good friendship. And I think the uniqueness makes El Deafo an even better book. Overall El Deafo is an amazing book.
I think this was a great book, because it has many important themes, such as friendship, optimism, and turning differences into superpowers. In my opinion, it was very cool to turn a story like this into a funny graphic novel. I think this book can be very inspiring for someone who has a disability, or is just different in some way; they may somehow be able to turn it into a good thing like Cece. I really like many parts of the book that, are funny, like when Cece can hear her teacher using the bathroom. My favorite part of the book is the ending, where she gives the fuzzy things to her friends. It’s a great ending because she becomes friends with Martha and Ginny again, and everyone is happy. After reading it, this has become one of my favorite books. This truly is a great story, and almost everyone can get something out of this book.
El Deafo is a really funny book.… It’s also written well. Even if you aren’t looking at the pictures, you can picture what’s going on. El Deafo has a lot of themes in it, including overcoming obstacles. Cece has to overcome obstacles all the time, from not being able to understand her friends to not knowing what to do in P.E., both of which happen because it is so hard to lip read. But she always manages to get past it, and eventually toward the end of the book things start to go her way.
El Deafo is an absolutely AMAZING book…. I really like how Cece makes all these different friends, like first it’s Laura then it’s Ginny, then it’s Martha….I think El Deafo is a very strong character, in all she goes through. I think everybody should read El Deafo.
I really liked El Deafo because of how much Cece has to go through.
I think El Deafo shows how important hearing is, and how sometimes your differences can be your superpowers. I really enjoyed El Deafo.
I love El Deafo. One thing I like about El Deafo is that she is always moving forward. When something bad happens to her she keeps on going…. You usually hear stories about how much people were teased because of their differences. I like how in this book, you hear the bright side of her differences….El Deafo is an inspiring story that proved that your differences is what makes you, yourself.
CeCe Bell’s El Deafo was a funny, and cartoony very humorous graphic novel. It is very similar to her actual life.
I think that El Deafo is a good and interesting book, and it is so cool that it is a true story.
I loved all of the humor and emotion in El Deafo. I think that the bunny ears were a brilliant idea, because it really shows how important hearing is, and you can see the cords going up to Cece’s ears….It is definitely Newbery worthy, and definitely worth reading.
Overall I really liked El Deafo and I hope that Cece Bell releases a sequel.
The graphic novel El Deafo, a Newbery and Kirkus honor award winner, is based on how the author, Cece Bell, grew up deaf. Growing up deaf is not particularly so easy even today, but even more so at the time Cece grew up.
I really liked how over time she got comfortable with being deaf and she just accepted who she was.
I think that El Deafo is an inspiring story, for some people who are embarrassed about being deaf.
I think learning about someone else’s story in comic is a fun project. At first I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it, but the book has the best cliffhangers, making you want to read more….So all in all, El Deafo was a magnificent book and the writing was amazing. I’m not saying that it should change, but if it were to become a novel, I would see it the same. Reading is a fun thing to do, especially if the book appeals to you, and El Deafo has my seal of approval.
I liked that in the book El Deafo dreams that she is a super hero that stops all of the bad things that happen in her real life.
A majority of the book is about Cece’s hunt for a friend, and the lesson of the book is to always stay strong no matter what the situation is.
El Deafo is a great book that everyone can enjoy.