El Deafo by Cece Bell

I love it when I go back to my stack of Newbery winners.  I keep this stack on my nightstand with my other “to read” books because I hope to one day work my way through all of the books that have won Newbery medals and honors.  This time, I picked up El Deafo by Cece Bell.

               This is a super charming graphic memoir (loosely though…Cece in the book is a rabbit). It is packed full of life lessons of all types and super cute illustrations.  Cece, who contracted meningitis at the age of four, recovers from the illness but suddenly finds herself without her ability to hear.  The illness left her deaf.  She is scared of being different, especially when she is fitted with the Phonic Ear, a clunky, wired hearing device and microphone that was high-tech in the 1970s when the book takes place.  Cece’s teachers have to wear the microphone, and Cece has to wear the power pack with wired headphones in order to hear what her teachers are saying.  She combines this sound with lip reading in order to be successful in school. 

While school success is important to Cece, having true friends who see her as more than a deaf child is what she wants most of all.  After traveling through a series of friends, one who bosses her around and the other who treats her like she lacks intelligence instead of hearing, Cece finds a great friend in Martha.  But, an unfortunate accident, breaks up Martha and Cece for what feels like forever. 

When Cece discovers that she can hear her teachers through the microphone even when they leave the room (even when they go to the bathroom), she imagines that she has super powers and gives herself the superhero name of El Deafo.  Will El Deafo find a loyal and trusty sidekick?  Will she be able to use her new superpowers for good? 

Read El Deafo.  Aside from finding the conclusion to this super adorable story, readers will also get a glimpse of what it is like to live in Cece’s world.  Readers will see themselves in Cece’s world, as it is hard not to reflect on how we react to people who are different from us.  It really does open the reader’s eyes, making it a great book to help children (and adults) develop empathy and acceptance.  Cece will help you see that she is just like you, even if she does have super powers.

     

El Deafo by Cece Bell, 233 pages from Amulet Books (2014). ISBN # 978-1-4197-1020-9

Ideal for elementary and early middle grade readers (and teachers and parents who care about promoting compassion and understanding)

Raymie Nightingale

I never intended to take a summer break from my blog, but it happened.  Family vacations, manuscript writing, teacher training, and a new job jumped right in the middle of blog writing.  With each week that passed, I missed writing the blog posts greatly.  I realized this summer that I write the blog for me.  I love to put into words what I feel after reading a book.  The great side benefit is if teachers, kids, and my students read it (and maybe even write back).

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I was still reading during my blog’s resting period.  No family vacation, manuscript, training, or job could get in the way of reading.  It is part of what helps me to breath each day and sleep at night.  What have I been reading?  Well, I finished The Testing series, All Fall Down by Ally Carter, started the second in the Embassy Row series, and am working my way through the Harry Potter series for the fifth…sixth…oh, I cannot remember…time.  I swore to myself that I would not read The Cursed Child until I finished the series again.  It is really killing me too because both of my kids have read the new book, and they are dying to talk about it with me.  I also read Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo.  And, Raymie is the real topic of this blog.

I could not wait to read this book, and after reading it, I am so glad that DiCamillo wrote it.  My favorite of all of DiCamillo’s books has always been Because of Winn-Dixie.  I love all of her others, but I have been waiting for another that reminded me of my favorite, and Raymie is it.

This is a beautiful piece of contemporary realistic fiction.  It is a story about a young girl whose father has just left the family for another woman.  Raymie desperately wants him to notice her, to think that she is important, so she sets out to learn how to twirl a baton so that she can win a local pageant.  She is convinced that if she wins, she will get her picture in the paper, and her dad will come back to her.  

Do you see what I mean?  That is classic DiCamillo.  Just hearing about what Raymie intends to do makes your stomach drop; doesn’t it?  It is sad.  As a reader, you know that this is not the way life works, and it is hard to watch Raymie so desperately trying to change the complexity of the adult world around her.  

But, also classic to DiCamillo is that there is humor.  From Louisiana and Granny to the crazy shenanigans at the Golden Glenn Nursing Home to the unorthodox baton lessons to the runaway grocery cart, the humor is woven intricately into the sadness.  I have always felt that DiCamillo’s writing is so skillful because just when she gets me laughing and I forget about the sadness, she punches me in the gut with a reminder of abandonment, poverty, death, and abuse.  All of which you will find in this book.

So, yes, parts of it are sad.  Parts of it are very funny.  That is life; isn’t it?  That is why this book is so great.  It is a must-read for teachers and for students in upper elementary and lower middle school.  I think it would make a great read aloud and lend itself to some very thoughtful, and probably tear-filled, discussions.  So many of our students carry the pain that Raymie holds.  Raymie works through her pain; maybe this book is a place for them to begin to work through theirs.   

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo, 263 pages from Candlewick Press (2016). ISBN # 978-0-7636-8117-3

Ideal for elementary and early middle readers (and many adults who have been abandoned too)