Author and illustrator Cece Bell was in Montpelier Wednesday night. The author of the graphic memoir El Deafo was in Vermont to accept this year’s Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award.Bell spoke to a crowd of all ages, including many students who voted for El Deafo in Vermont’s children’s choice middle grade book award. She told the crowd in Montpelier High School's auditorium that she used fading and blank speech bubbles in her graphic novel to convey what it was like when she lost her hearing.
“The hearing people in this room, I hope that’s what you experienced," she said. "And the deaf people in this room, I hope you read it and said, ‘Oh yeah, I know exactly what that feels like.’”
Vermont’s Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award is one of several honors El Deafo has earned, including a Newbery Honor and the comic industry’s Eisner Award.
