I have to give a shout-out of thanks to a little girl I’m close to, for giving me the nudge to read El Deafo. I think I’d come across it, but it wasn’t till I heard how much she loved it that I pulled it to the top of my TBR pile.

You see, this little girl–whom I’ll call Kay–is deaf. She was born without any ability to hear, thanks to a virus she and her mother contracted when her mother was pregnant with her. Kay is an energetic, warm, generous and bright-eyes girl, and she’s done really well in the hearing world thanks to hearing aids and a cochlear implant. But it hasn’t been easy. She’s sometimes felt isolated, and there are so many things that are so much harder for her than they are for hearing kids. So much Kay misses, even when everyone is trying. Since she has three hearing siblings and her parents and friends can also hear, she often felt like the only one who had to deal with these things. The. Only. One.

Then she read El Deafo, and it blew her world wide open. Even better, she got to meet the author, which thrilled her all the way down to her pinkie toes and back up to the tips of her curly hair. And I sat there listening to this and thinking–this is why we need #ownvoices. This is why we need children to have both windows–so they can see into each others’ challenges–and also mirrors, so they can clearly see themselves and be seen. Of course I knew that we needed this movement, have known it since I was a rather stranger-among-us child, myself. But I’ve never before seen with my own eyes the beauty of an #ownvoices book in action captured so well!

So, what’s this book about? Well, it’s a graphic novel told with animals–bunnies, etc.–walking around as the people, and tells the author’s own story of how she lost her hearing at a young age and coped with that through her growing up years. The isolation of being the only deaf kid in a school, the frustration of having people sign at her just because she’s deaf (even though she never learned sign language) and the typical coming-of-age challenges as she learned how to make friends, lose her heart to the new boy, and speak up for herself. What’s really neat to read is the progression as she went from being embarrassed by her difference to seeing it as her own private super power!

I highly recommend the book, not only to any kids who feel different but also for use in classrooms and family circles, because it shares so beautifully the inside scoop on this experience.

Now, let’s see what Apricot-kitty has to say:

“Compared to cats, every single one of you is nearly deaf. And that’s without bothering to go into all your other inadequate senses. I don’t know why some of those kids gave that girl such a hard time when she was only slightly harder of hearing than they were.”

That does…illustrate a different perspective, I suppose! And would perhaps make a good discussion topic, to go alongside the book. I think every one of us feels insufficient in some way. Too awkward, too tall, too short, too heavy, too geeky, etc. So what are the super powers that each of us can find in our own lives, the way that Cece found hers? Something to think about. 🙂

For more MMGM spotlights, reviews, posts and giveaways stop by Shannon Messenger’s blog, and happy reading!

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