Cece Bell Books in Order
Browse Cece Bell books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and tips on where to start with her funny picture books and graphic novels.
Last updated: July 12, 2026
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Cece Bell books in publication order
18 books
Sock Monkey Goes To Hollywood
by Cece Bell
2003
Sock Monkey is nominated for an Oswald Award, but first he must face something terrifying, a bath. His toy friends rally around him in this mock-Hollywood picture book about fear, friendship, and getting clean.
Sock Monkey Takes a Bath
by Cece Bell
2003
In this reissued first Sock Monkey adventure, a trip to an award ceremony depends on one awful obstacle, bath time. Bell turns that simple problem into a theatrical, very funny story of panic and support.
Sock Monkey Boogie Woogie: A Friend Is Made
by Cece Bell
2004
A big celebrity dance is coming, and Sock Monkey has no partner. After failed auditions, fancy clothes, and a burst of invention, this playful picture book turns showbiz nerves into an offbeat friendship story.
Busy Buddies
by Cece Bell
2006
Brush wanders through a world of matching pairs, spotting friends like pencil and paper or fork and knife. This cheerful board book invites little readers to notice everyday things that naturally belong together.
Food Friends
by Cece Bell
2006
Cake is hosting a surprise party, and all the classic food pairs start arriving. With bright, playful art and a guessing-game structure, this board book celebrates delicious combinations kids already know and love.
Sock Monkey Rides Again
by Cece Bell
2006
Sock Monkey lands the starring role in a singing cowboy movie and can handle the yodeling, horse, and lasso just fine. The problem is kissing the leading lady in this shy, showbiz comedy.
Bee-Wigged
by Cece Bell
2008
Jerry Bee is huge, lonely, and desperate to fit in. When a wig lets him pass as a boy, friendship suddenly seems easier, but the real test comes when his true self is revealed.
Itty Bitty
by Cece Bell
2009
A tiny dog finds an enormous bone and transforms it into a home, only to realize it still needs the right small touches. This gentle picture book is about ingenuity, scale, and making a place feel like yours.
The Sleepover
by Cece Bell
2012
Rabbit has planned the perfect sleepover, complete with a strict list of activities. Robot has other ideas, and their mismatched habits turn pizza, games, and bedtime into a warm, funny story about flexibility.
El Deafo
by Cece Bell
2014
Cece Bell turns her childhood hearing loss into a graphic memoir full of humor and heart. As young Cece navigates school, friendships, and a bulky Phonic Ear, she invents the superhero version of herself, El Deafo.
I Yam a Donkey!
by Cece Bell
2015
A cheerful donkey announces that Donkey is a donkey and starts a battle of words with a very cranky yam. The joke keeps building until grammar, identity, and frustration collide in a sharp, silly finish.
Chuck and Woodchuck
by Cece Bell
2016
When Chuck brings Woodchuck to show-and-tell, the lively animal charms the whole class, especially Caroline. Under the jokes and classroom chaos, this is a sweet story about shyness, kindness, and new friendship.
Rabbit and Robot and Ribbit
by Cece Bell
2016
Rabbit drops in on Robot and discovers a new friend already there, Ribbit. Jealousy, checkers, movie playacting, and an overheated Emotion Decoder push the trio toward a funny lesson in sharing friendship.
Smell My Foot!
by Cece Bell
2019
Brain wants Chick to smell his foot, but Chick is not budging without a polite please. Spot just wants lunch in this goofy graphic reader about manners, misunderstandings, and very patient friendship.
You Loves Ewe!
by Cece Bell
2019
Donkey still mangles grammar, Yam still tries to correct it, and a sheep named Ewe makes everything messier. This brisk picture book turns homonyms, crushes, and confusion into loud read-aloud comedy.
Egg or Eyeball?
by Cece Bell
2020
Brain finds a mysterious object and immediately insists it is an eyeball. Chick and Spot disagree, and the argument spirals into a wonderfully silly beginning reader about bad guesses, good manners, and comic stubbornness.
Supersorda
by Cece Bell
2020
This Spanish-language edition of El Deafo follows young Cece as she loses her hearing, adjusts to a bulky Phonic Ear, and imagines herself as a superhero. It is funny, honest, and deeply felt.
Animal Albums from A to Z
by Cece Bell
2024
This inventive alphabet book imagines 26 animal recording acts, each with its own album cover and song. Bell packs every page with music jokes, visual gags, and a real love of old records.
Where to start with Cece Bell
If you want her most personal book: El Deafo
If you want funny early readers: The Sleepover → Rabbit and Robot and Ribbit
If you love wordplay: I Yam a Donkey! → You Loves Ewe!
If you want goofy graphic readers: Smell My Foot! → Egg or Eyeball?
If you want classic toy-showbiz silliness: Sock Monkey Goes To Hollywood → Sock Monkey Boogie Woogie: A Friend Is Made → Sock Monkey Rides Again
Cece Bell sub-series and character series
Chick and Brain books in order
Explore this seriesRabbit & Robot books in order
Explore this seriesSock Monkey books in order
Explore this seriesYam and Donkey books in order
Explore this seriesCece Bell collections, short stories, and related book types
Standalone Cece Bell books
Author bio
Cece Bell was born in Richmond, Virginia, and grew up in Salem, in the southwestern part of the state. She was the kind of kid who loved to draw, and she has spoken warmly about the books that shaped her early eye, especially A Snowy Day and Ed Emberley's how-to-draw books. Even in her later work, you can feel some of that early spark, the clear shapes, the comic timing, and the sense that pictures should do a lot of the talking.
Virginia never really stopped being home.
When Bell was four and a half, she got meningitis and lost most of her hearing. That experience changed the way she moved through school, friendships, and everyday conversation, and it later became the heart of El Deafo. In that book, she turned her own childhood into a graphic memoir that is funny, awkward, sad, and very recognizable to anyone who has ever wanted badly to fit in. The hearing aid at the center of the story, the bulky Phonic Ear she wore on her chest, felt huge to her as a child, and Bell found a way to make that feeling visible on the page.
Before she became a full-time author and illustrator, Bell studied art at William & Mary, where she met future husband Tom Angleberger. She later earned a master's degree in illustration and design at Kent State University. After school she did design work, including work for a company that sold exotic pet products, and spent years as a freelance illustrator and designer. That mix of practical art jobs and personal projects helped shape the flexible, handmade feel of her books.
Writing seems to have grown naturally out of drawing for her. Bell has said that children's books felt like a good fit for the kind of illustrations she wanted to make, and that if nobody was going to hire her to illustrate books, she would write her own. Her first big breakthrough was Sock Monkey Goes to Hollywood, a mock showbiz picture book that introduced a nervous toy actor and a style that was already unmistakably hers, funny, odd, and a little retro.
That do-it-yourself streak is still all over her work.
Bell's books often come back to friendship, especially friendship between characters who do not quite match. Rabbit and Robot: The Sleepover pairs a planner and a machine and lets their small differences power the comedy. I Yam a Donkey! turns grammar into slapstick. Bee-Wigged hides a story about belonging inside a joke about a giant bee in disguise. The Chick and Brain books shrink everything down to a few characters, a few repeated words, and one misunderstanding that spirals beautifully out of control. Readers tend to love how direct the humor is, and how much the drawings carry the joke.
El Deafo is still her best-known book, and for good reason. It is deeply personal without ever feeling heavy-handed. Bell drew the characters as rabbits, a visual choice that let the ears do part of the storytelling and made the book feel both specific and a little universal. More recently, Animal Albums from A to Z shows another side of her imagination, music-loving, playful, and packed with fake animal bands, hand-painted art, and loving nods to old record-album design. It feels like the work of someone who enjoys making things down to the last little detail.
Bell still lives in Virginia, in an old church, and works in a barn next door. She and Angleberger have two sons, and the two have collaborated from time to time. But her own books have a very clear through line: warmth, comic precision, friendship, and a willingness to be a little weird in exactly the right way.
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