[Rahul reads] El Deafo by Cece Bell

Every time we visit the Bookshelf childrens' library, we pick up three books - two for Luffy and one for me - and last week, El Deafo by Cece Bell was my pick. It's been on my to-read list for long enough that I don't even remember where I came across the recommendation so it was a pleasant surprise when I came across the book at the library. I couldn't put the book down on the train once I started it. I don't remember the last time I read a non-fiction graphic novel about a differently-abled person (Daredevil is fictitious so it doesn't count).

One of our fears when Preeti was pregnant with Luffy was that he would be born with a handicap. Thankfully he is a healthy boy at the moment but it's a constant background fear in my mind. The author talks about her journey after losing her hearing but I wonder how the parents adapted to live with a hearing-impaired kid. By design, the author talks about her personal experience but there must be books out there where parents talk about raising differently-abled children.

Setting those fears aside, I hope Luffy reads this one day, sooner rather than later, and I hope it will give him perspective on how different people live their lives. The author talks about her experience from the 1960s/1970s but barring technical differences in how hearing aids work in 2020s vs back then, i'm afraid there is still a lot of stigma around being disabled (or things that are perceived as disabilities).