Section 1: Chapters 1-5
Vocabulary
- Dazed: a state of stunned confusion or bewilderment
- Drifting: to be carried by a current; a loss of attention
- Gestural: an action to convey one’s feelings or intentions
- Intuition: the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning
- Meningitis: inflammation of the meninges caused by a viral or bacterial infection and marked by an intense headache and fever
- Phonic: relating to speech sounds
Comprehension Questions
- Cece’s parents have to rush her to the hospital because she becomes very sick. (pg. 2)
- When Cece returns home from the hospital her siblings really nice to her. Her brother hides paper boats filled with candy and her sister sits with her until she falls asleep. (pg. 10)
- When Cece finally finds her mother she realizes that she can’t hear. (pg. 12)
- Cece loves wearing her bathing suit everyday and everywhere because it looks good on her. (pg. 13)
- Amazing things happen when Cece goes into the hearing booth she hears sound for the first time in weeks. She hears a beep and something that sounds like talking. (pg. 16)
- Cece starts to wear real clothes so that she can cover up the ugliness of her hearing aid. (pg. 23)
- At the end of the summer Cece has definite proof that she and Emma are different as they get on different buses to go to kindergarten. (pg. 26)
- Dorn teaches the students that learning to lip-read will help them understand what people are saying. (pg. 29)
- Lip-reading is tricky because some words look the same when they are spoken. (pg. 29)
- The three clues that Dorn gives Cece when lip-reading are to use visual, contextual and gestural clues to clarify word that have the same lip shape. (pg. 30)
- The Phonic Ear gives Cece the super power of being able to hear anything that is said in school by Mrs. Lufton. (pg. 43)
- First grade is lonely at first for Cece as she feels she is in a bubble and is being stared at by everyone. (pg. 47)
- When Laura spends time with Cece she is pushy, critical and controlling. (pg.s 48-50)
- Cece decides to stay friends with Laura despite the fact that she is pushy because it is better than being alone in the bubble. (pg. 51)
Section 2: Chapters 6-10
Vocabulary
- Accosted: to approach, address someone boldly or aggressively
- Bliss: perfect happiness; great joy
- Dastardly: wicked and cruel
- Interrogate: to ask questions of someone closely, aggressively or formally
- Menacing: the presence of danger; threatening
- Unfurl: to make or spread out from a rolled or folded state, especially in order to be open to the wind
Comprehension Questions
- The night before third grade Cece prays that she and Laura will not be in the same class and that she finds a new friend. (pg. 61)
- Some of the things that Cece and Ginny bond over are Richard Scarry books and Narnia. (pg. 64-65)
- Two things bother Cece when Ginny speaks, she shouts and slows her words down, which make it more difficult to understand what she is saying. (pg. 65)
- Cece is frustrated with Ginny because she makes a big deal out of her hearing. (pg. 69)
- When Cece needs a break from everything she enjoys watching T.V. even though it can be difficult to understand what is being said. (pg. 72)
- Cece enjoys watching foreign films as they have sub-titles and so she can understand everything that is going on. (pg. 73)
- Even though T.V. can be difficult for Cece to understand she still enjoys it as the people on T.V. are always there and they don’t care id she can hear them or not. (pg. 79)
- Cece decides to give her superhero alter-ego the funny name of El Deafo. (pg. 84)
- Cece is afraid to ask Ginny to turn the lights back on at the sleepover because she is afraid that it will make Ginny and the other girls mad. (pg. 96)
- After the sleepover Cece feels relieved to be home, but she wishes that she had told the girls what she thought. (pg. 98)
- Cece doesn’t like it when Bonnie starts to sign at her in the gym as she exaggerates the motions and draws the attention of other students to their conversation. (pg. 104-105)
- Cece hates the word “special” as she sees it being used to say cool, great, when in reality she feels weird. (pg. 115)
- Cece is glad that Martha isn’t in her grade at school as she hasn’t seen her giant hearing aid and she doesn’t seem to have noticed her small hearing aid. (pg. 123)
- Cece knows that Martha is a True Friend, the most glorious superhero of all time as she knows about her hearing aid, but doesn’t make a big deal about it. (pg. 128-129)
Section 3: Chapters 11-15
Vocabulary
- Abolish: formally put an end to a system, practice or institution
- Courteous: polite, respectful, considerate in manner
- Hypnotic: exerting a compelling, fascinating effect
- Jubilation: a feeling of great happiness and triumph
- Remarkable: worthy of attention; striking
- Sympathetic: feeling, showing compassion
Comprehension Questions
- Summertime with Martha is awesome because they walk barefooted, rollerskate and get lemonades. (pg. 131)
- The Millers move into the Carter’s old house. (pg.131-132)
- Cece decides to secretly spy on Mike Miller so that she can learn everything about him. (pg. 134)
- Cece’s eye is injured when she runs into a tree branch while playing chase with Martha. (pg. 142-143)
- Martha doesn’t want to speak to Cece after the eye incident as she feels the accident was her fault. (pg. 146)
- Cece is excited to be in Mrs. Sinklemann’s class as Mike Miller is in the same class. (pg. 151)
- The first day back at school is always difficult for Cece because she has to give the teacher the microphone for the phonic ear in front of all the students. (pg. 154)
- Cece gets into trouble at school when Mrs. Sinklemann sees her talking to Ginny and thinks she is cheating on a test. (pg. 156-157)
- When Cece tells her mom what happened at school her mom believes her and suggests that she get her eyes checked. She may need glasses. (pg. 161)
- Cece is amazed when she puts on her new glasses as everything is clear and she can see things she couldn’t before. (pg. 162)
- Martha throws up when she sees Cece with glasses because
- Cece hopes that if she studies hard and gets good grades then she will be the smartest kid in school. (pg. 167)
- After Mr. Potts breaks Cece’s microphone and it has to be sent away for repair she is worried that in the four to six weeks it will take to be repaired she will fail her classes. (pg. 173)
- When Cece is fueled with rage she is able to hold a pull-up for 64 seconds. (pg. 176-177)
Section 4: Chapters 16-21
Vocabulary
- Absolute: total and complete (silence, dedication, darkness)
- Bawling: to weep or cry noisily
- Humiliated: to make someone feel ashamed and foolish by injuring their dignity and self-respect
- Static: lacking in movement, action, or change, especially in a way viewed as undesirable or uninteresting
- Surpass: to exceed, to be greater than
- Suspense: a state or feeling or excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen
Comprehension Questions
- When dad returns from a conference he brings Cece a curly pencil back as a gift. (pg. 179)
- Cece begins to cry uncontrollably at the bus stop because Johnny deliberately breaks her curly pencil. (pg. 183-184)
- While Cece is sitting alone on the gym bleachers Mike makes Johnny apologize for breaking the pencil and tries to talk to her, but she becomes tongue-tied. (pg. 186-187)
- School is suddenly boring for Cece without the phonic ear because she can no longer hear all the conversations that the teacher has with other people. (pg. 188)
- Mike gets into trouble during Quiet Math because he was out of his seat and fooling around when the teacher returned to the classroom. (pg. 190)
- After four weeks and three days the repaired phonic arrives in the mail. (pg. 192)
- Mike and Cece have to wear matching pajamas at school because they have been chosen to be book ends on stage for “The Wonderful World of Books” campaign. (pg. 194-195)
- Cece is unable to stop giggling during the play as she hears over her phonic ear Mrs. Sinklemann using the restroom. (pg. 198)
- Mike and Cece decide to experiment with her hearing aid after school to see how far Mike can walk away from her and still be heard. (pg. 204)
- On their long walk back from downtown Martha tells Mike why she and Cece are no longer friends and Cece hears. (pg. 208)
- Mike big plan for Cece’s phonic ear is for her to act as look out and warn them when the teacher is on her way back to they won’t get caught being out of their seats. (pg. 211)
- The corny craft that Mrs. Catawaba wants the class to make is warm fuzzies out of pom-poms. (pg. 224)
- Cece feels a warm fuzzy that makes her smile when she receives lots of fuzzies from her classmates. (pg. 229)
- Cece gives Martha a gift of her best fuzzy she made and Martha tells her why she has avoided her and they decide to be friends again. (pg. 230-231)