El Deafo by Cece Bell (Newbery Honor 2015) Booktalk

When Cece was four years old, she got very sick with meningitis. Although she recovered from it, her hearing did not. She was deaf. At first her own family and doctor missed the signs, but once they figured it out, she got tested. She would have to wear hearing aids [show kids the Phonic Ear picture].

Problem solved - right? Wrong. Hearing is complicated - it's not just a question of making things louder. Hearing aids don't solve every problem for the deaf: there still may be sounds which a deaf person cannot hear. Some words sound muffled, even if they're "loud" enough. Cece would have to learn new strategies: how to lip read and how to guess from context what people might be saying to her.

But her Phonic Ear made her feel self-conscious and different. Imagine feeling as if people were always staring at you. Imagine that your teacher has to wear a microphone which sends sound to your hearing device. It's both a blessing and a curse.

And you know what Cece can do that no other student in her class can do? She can hear the teacher outside of class - away from the students - because the teacher keeps forgetting to turn her microphone of. She can hear her teacher in the restroom, in the teacher's lounge, you name it.

Being deaf can make friendships tricky, too. One of Cece's friends treats her like a slow-witted person. And the cute boy (on whom Cece has a crush) wants Cece to "spy" on her teacher and share that information. Read the Newbery Honor winner titled El Deafo by Cece Bell.

El Deafo by Cece Bell. 233 pages. Newbery Honor 2015. Amulet Books, 2014. Booktalk to grades 3-8. 

Book talk: A Game for Swallows by Zeina Abirachad

Most of you have been at home alone while you waited for your parents to return home, right? It’s a fairly typical teen experience. But what if you had no way of contacting your parents when they were gone? What if you worried they’d get hit by sniper fire when returning home? In this graphic novel, Zeina drew us a map of how tricky it was to avoid the sniper near their apartment. 

Avoiding the sniper in A Game for Swallows

And what if the block and the area you lived in got bombed so regularly that all your neighbors would come join you in the foyer of your apartment because it was considered the safest spot? Imagine living with all your neighbors in a tiny room for hours and hours and even days. It’s a hard way to live, but Zeina and her little brother have grown up with this. They live in Beirut, Lebanon, during a time of civil war, a civil war which dragged on from 1975-1990. They know of people who have disappeared and were never seen again. But there’s humor in this novel: her neighbors – virtually family since they live in close quarters – are protective, loving, and quirky. If your world shrank to one room, would you be able to laugh?

A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached. Graphic novel. 188 p. Booktalk to middle school, high school.