While I was writing and drawing the book, I was more interested in capturing the specific feelings I had as a kid with hearing loss than in being 100 percent accurate with the details. Some of the events in the book are in the right order; others got mixed up a bit. Some of the conversations are real; others, well, ain’t. But the way I felt as a kid – that feeling is all true. Here’s me around the time I got sick. I couldn’t remember exactly what the pattern on my bathing suit was, but I do remember that it was red. So I based the bathing suit on the polka-dotted hat in this photo.

Photograph: Cece Bell