El Deafo

When I picked up my graphic novels for the week's readings, I had a choice to make: Which to read first? There was an assumption in my mind that all of them would read fairly quickly, so it was a question akin to "Which delicious candy shall I stuff in my face first?" rather than "What shall I have for dinner tonight, and then tomorrow night?"

El Deafo, by Cece Bell, is the Newberry Award-winning story of Cece as a child, growing up with a hearing aid after she lost her hearing due to illness. And let me tell you, friends, it is COLORFUL!  Flipping through my choices for the week, I was immediately drawn to the bright use of color on the pages, as well as the disregard for row after row of square panels. Cece's images completely fill the pages, or loop across them as the titular character imagines herself as El Deafo, the superhero, flying through the skies.

This is a story about children, and in some ways, aimed towards children, even though the text is very dense. The images are so vivid, and the characters -- all portrayed as rabbits -- are very relatable in their simplicity and style, and the message really focuses on the feelings of a young child who is struggling with being different.

But it's also important to remember, as an adult, that this is about a world where someone cannot hear. In this graphic novel, I really felt that the high level of detail and color in the pages was stepping in for the missing component, that of sound. How sound worked -- or didn't work -- for Cece was portrayed visually. We could see her being overwhelmed by sounds that were too loud through her hearing devices (most amusingly, hearing a giant, wet flush of a toilet), or frustrated by speech bubbles where words were over-enunciated or shouted in a misguided effort to communicate more effectively. She is saying to the reader, Look, look at how frustrating this is to read. See how this isn't helpful, even written on a page. It's not helpful when you're speaking, either. 

Even with all the color, and fun, and super-hero rabbits, there is a strong message in Bell's novel about how difficult it is for a child to be different, and how we all need to be able to find friends, and find our place in the social dynamics of school. This is a very cute story of a girl using her "super powers" of her hearing aids for good (and evil? Well, not evil, just some light mischief), and it's also the story of a child figuring out where she wants to fit within the spaces of hearing, deaf, and Deaf people.