“Look, look, look: this is a 2-star book FOR ME, because that’s how I use Goodreads. I don’t really rate things as the way I imagine they would hit their intended audience because I use Goodreads to remember what I read and how I felt about it.
Besides, this is like a highly-praised book and so on, so I don’t think my personal system is going to screw up Goodreads and Cece Bell is going to be out on the street now.
This is definitely a book for a younger audience. It presents the basics and specifics of Bell’s hearing loss and the devices she uses to help her hear a little better. I think it’d be great for introducing kids to disability and accommodations, especially in sensory loss.
What’s tricky about this book and books like it, and Bell does point this out in the end, is that it’s one person’s story. You know, we can’t look at all people with hearing loss and assume they think and feel the same way Bell does.
Bell seems, at least during her childhood, to be interested in hearing and interacting with hearing kids and adults, and it seems like she’s interested in using devices and options that open those doors.
I gather some people in the deaf community feel that using devices like Cece’s or getting cochlear implants and whatnot is an issue of deaf culture and makes kids feel like there’s something wrong with them when there’s not. I can see that.
I think the problem is that there’s no one, correct choice.
For example, I think parents who had a deaf child and had the means and ability to learn sign language, send the child to a school with other children with deafness, do all that good shit, can probably reasonably raise a person and let them make their own choices.
But then let’s say you have parents who do not make much money, work long hours, and don’t have the ability to means to learn sign and send their kid to a special school. The best decision for their kid might be different than the best decision for that other kid.
A stark example in the book is that Cece doesn’t want to learn ASL. I think it’s because she felt like she didn’t need it, and she felt like it made her different, and she didn’t want to be different. I think a lot of kids who feel different in ways that are inescapable want to feel like they’re less different, and how that looks probably varies a great deal from person to person.
Anyway, it’s a tough call, and I think the best thing to do is to ask someone how they want to be treated when you encounter them and go from there.
I think the strength of this book is that it’s honest and it presents a specific version of how one person feels, which is a good thing. And while I think it’s most appropriate for young audiences, I think it’s probably best read along with a person who can help guide the child and help the child understand that Cece’s view of things isn’t going to be for everyone, and that’s okay. Because people with disabilities aren’t all the same, even if they have the same disability. Each of them has to look at it from their own perspective and manage it in their preferred way.
I think that concept is a little tough for adults. For example, when we talk about “marginalized people” at my workplace, we lump in a lot of different people with different needs, and sometimes a person from one marginalized community may not be an ally to someone in another marginalized community. It’s not like every person from a low SES is a LGBTQIA+ ally, right?
So I think El Deafo does a good job of showing one version of things, and people would be wise to take care to read it that way. “