Children's Literature: Disabilities

While the rest of the class makes birthday cards for the principal, Stanley, who is dyslexic, struggles with his words and letters.

True story of five little girls with cerebral palsy or other physical disabilities who were determined to become ballerinas.

Although Christy considered him a pest, when Eddie Lee, a boy with Down's Syndrome, follows her into the woods, he shares several special discoveries with her.

Marina and Moira like many of the same things. However, Marina loves to make noise, and Moira likes quiet. These two preschoolers, one with Cerebral Palsy and one with Down Syndrome, learn to play together and become best friends.

This title invites readers to imagine living without sight through remarkable illustrations done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers.

The renowned cat conservationist reflects on his early childhood struggles with a speech disorder, describing how he only spoke fluently when he was communicating with animals and how he resolved at a young age to find his voice to be their advocate.

In Brooklyn, New York, in 1947, a boy learns about discrimination and tolerance as he and his deaf father share their enthusiasm over baseball and the Dodgers' first baseman, Jackie Robinson.

Lee, a jazz pianist, has to leave his band when he begins losing his hearing, but he meets a deaf saxophone player in a sign language class and together they form a snazzy new band.

Born into a traveling gypsy family, young Django Reinhardt taught himself guitar at an early age. He was soon acclaimed as the "Gypsy Genius" and "Prodigy Boy," but one day his world changed completely when a fire claimed the use of his fretting hand. Folks said Django would never play again, but with passion and perseverance he was soon setting the world's concert stages ablaze.

Born in Ghana, West Africa, with one deformed leg, he was dismissed by most people—but not by his mother, who taught him to reach for his dreams. As a boy, Emmanuel hopped to school more than two miles each way, learned to play soccer, left home at age thirteen to provide for his family, and, eventually, became a cyclist. He rode an astonishing four hundred miles across Ghana in 2001, spreading his powerful message: disability is not inability.

Henry would like to find a friend at school, but for a boy on the autism spectrum, making friends can be difficult, as his efforts are sometimes misinterpreted, or things just go wrong--but Henry keeps trying, and in the end he finds a friend he can play with.

When young Temple was diagnosed with autism, no one expected her to talk, let alone become one of the most powerful voices in modern science. Yet, the determined visual thinker did just that. Her unique mind allowed her to connect with animals in a special way, helping her invent groundbreaking improvements for farms around the globe!

When Henri Matisse was a boy, he drew pictures everywhere. And when he grew up, he became a famous artist whose paintings were beloved around the world. Them late in life, a serious illness confined Henri to just his bed and a wheelchair. But amazingly, from there he created some of his finest works , the enormous and breathtaking paper cut-outs.

When a child has a "bad speech day" at school, his father gives him a new perspective on his stuttering.

A young girl realizes how much she cares for her autistic brother Ian when he gets lost at the park. When her autistic little brother, Ian, wanders off while on a walk to the park, Julie must try to see the world through his eyes in order to find him.

Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful. In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges--and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same: When we come across someone who is different from us but we're not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask.

A younger brother describes all the fun he has with the big sister he loves so much just because. He is enthusiastic about just how loving and special she is, and delights in telling us about all the fun things they do together. Only as his tale unfolds does the reader begin to realize that his sister has special needs and by then the reader just accepts, as he does, all the wonderful things about her.

Gracie and her aunt Roo are best friends. Roo has the heart and mind of a child, and she's always had a knack for finding the best ways to have fun together. But now Gracie's getting older, and her feelings about Roo are changing. She doesn't always have time to play anymore. She worries about what her new school friend will think of strange Roo. Does growing up mean she'll have to leave her best friend behind? In a realistic, heartwarming story about a little girl's relationship with her beloved aunt who is mentally challenged, Glenn reminds us of the gifts we all bring to the world, and to each other.

Even though he is confined to a wheelchair, a Pakistani boy tries to capture the most kites during Basant, the annual spring kite festival, and become "king" for the day.

In this poignant story, the counting rope is a metaphor for the passage of time and for a boy's emerging confidence in facing his blindness.

"A nonfiction picture book biography celebrating Evelyn Glennie, a deaf woman, who became the first full-time solo percussionist in the world"-- Provided by publisher.
From the moment Evelyn Glennie heard her first note, music held her heart. She played the piano by ear at age eight, and the clarinet by age ten. But soon, the nerves in her ears began to deteriorate, and Evelyn was told that, as a deaf girl, she could never be a musician. What sounds Evelyn couldn't hear with her ears, thought, she could feel resonate through her body as if she, herself, were a drum. And the music she created was extraordinary. Evelyn Glennie had learned how to listen in a new way. And soon, the world was listening too.

Describes a day in the life of a seeing eye dog, from going with his owner to the grocery store and post office, to visiting a class of school children, and playing ball. Also describes their three-hundred mile walk from Boston to New York.

A girl tells what it is like living with her twin brother who has autism and sometimes finds it hard to communicate with words, but who, in most ways, is just like any other boy. Includes authors' note about autism.

A boy describes some of the many feelings he has about his brother Sammy, who is autistic.

A young girl explores her city with her father, taking in all its sensory details. Her city speaks to her in so many ways: "sometimes it echoes," and "sometimes it trills." It "buzzes and tweets and flocks." It's both "busy" and "relaxed," and "smelly" and "sweet." In the end, we discover that the city doesn't just speak to this inquisitive young girl - it also listens ... The portrayal of a girl with a visual impairment walking through the city on her way to her violin recital offers a character education lesson in adaptability.

While volunteering with her mother at a community center, a seven-year-old girl befriends Suhana, also seven, whose cerebral palsy makes it difficult for her to communicate or control her movements. Includes facts about cerebral palsy.

Two young boys experience carefree camaraderie despite one boy's disability. Victor tells heart-booming ghost stories, claps the loudest at Dominic's baseball games, and performs a fabulous floating frog stroke. The last page of the book shows Victor in his wheelchair.

Describes how Vasya Kandinsky's creative life was profoundly shaped by a neurological condition called synesthesia which caused him to experience colors as sounds and sounds as colors.

A picture book answering the questions young children ask Shane Burcaw about his wheelchair and life with Spinal Muscular Atrophy with equal parts optimism, humor, and empathy.

Pedro, a young boy who loves whales more than anything, is heartbroken when he's told to put away his favorite toy whale on the first day of school. But then Pedro's teacher discovers the secret to helping him do his best work: not only giving him his whale, but also incorporating his special interest into the whole curriculum. Soon, Pedro's whale is helping all the children learn, as the teacher works whales into math lessons, storytime, simple science experiments, and more! Pedro's whale helps him make friends, too, as the other children start to share his special interest.

The story of the young Art Tatum, who became one of the all-time greats of jazz piano. Tatum came from modest beginnings and was nearly blind, but his passion for the piano and his acute memory for any sound that he heard drove him to become a virtuoso who was revered by both classical and jazz pianists alike.

Ginny's eyes play tricks on her, making her see everything double, but when she goes to vision screening at school and discovers that not everyone sees this way, she learns that her double vision can be cured.

When he is paired with a girl who has lost her legs, Rescue worries that he isn't up to the task of being her service dog.

A fictionalized biography of James Castle, a deaf, autistic artist whose drawings hang in major museums throughout the world.

Louis Braille was just five years old when he lost his sight. He was a clever boy, determined to live like everyone else, and what he wanted more than anything was to be able to read. Even at the school for the blind in Paris, there were no books for him. And so he invented his own alphabet -- a whole new system for writing that could be read by touch. A system so ingenious that it is still used by the blind community today.

Presents an illustrated introduction to the life and work of artist Horace Pippin, describing his childhood love for drawing and the World War I injury that challenged his career.

A child tells about her autistic sister, who is also her best friend.

Hannah describes her neighbors on Gold Street, especially Isabel, who is an adult but still plays with the young children and holds her mother's hand to cross the street, just as she has since Hannah's mother was small.

A young boy named Sam, has difficulty at school and seems moody at home. When Sam is diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger syndrome, his family and teachers understand him better and learn how to help him succeed.

Emma and her father discuss what they will do when the new baby arrives, but they adjust their expectations when he is born with Down syndrome.

A boy named Joe is trying to play pirates at the playground but he keeps being asked what happened to his leg. Bombarded with questions and silly suggestions Joe becomes more and more fed up, until the other kids finally understand they don't need to know what happened. And that they're wasting valuable playtime! Based on the author's real childhood experiences, this honest, funny, and authentic picture book is an empowering read for anyone with a disability, and for young readers learning how best to address differences.