60 pages • 2 hours read
Cece BellEl Deafo
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Essay Questions
Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.
Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions
Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the play over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.
1. Cece feels resentful about her mother’s desire for the two of them to learn sign language.
- What is the underlying reason for Cece’s feelings about sign language? (topic sentence)
- In what other ways does this affect Cece’s life as a young girl?
- How does this tie into an overall theme or idea of the graphic novel?
2. Cece spends much of the graphic novel looking for what she calls a “True Friend.”
- What does having friends mean for a Deaf person like Cece? (topic sentence)
- How do the friends she makes throughout the novel meet or fail to meet the requirements of Cece’s friendship?
- What’s different about the friendships Cece makes at the end of the graphic novel?
3. Graphic novels have their own conventions of formatting and storytelling that are distinct from other types of storytelling.
- Why might the graphic novel form be a significant storytelling choice for Cece’s narrative? (topic sentence)
- What visual elements in the story help represent Cece’s condition and her desire to overcome it?
- How does the visual storytelling enhance the overall purpose of the story?
