Books for, about and including children with disabilities?

[fan_of_small_world]

Hi everyone,

I'm searching for recommendations for books for, about, and including children with disabilities. Knowing that many of the posters here are raising kids with special needs, I thought that perhaps you may have come across some good titles and wouldn't mind sharing them.

I'm not a poster on this forum, although I'm active in other areas of the DIS. I recently started taking grad classes in library science, and this semester I'm taking a course in children's literature. For my final project, I have chosen to create an annotated bibliography of books focusing on children with disabilities. They can be physical, developmental, etc. Also, I'm looking not only for books that focus on children with challenges, but also those that include characters that just simply happen to have a disability.

Thanks for any guidance you can give me, and of course I'd be happy to share my information when I'm done!

~ Cari

 

[gillenkl]

In Jesse's Shoes - by Beverly Lewis

What parent hasn't urged son or daughter not to stare at or tease a child who is "different" or disabled in some way? In this sensitive yet realistic story, Jesse's sister struggles to understand her brother--and the kids who make fun of him. This endearing book will encourage families everywhere to appreciate and befriend children with special needs.

 

[Piper]

For very young children--Mercer Mayer's A Very Special Critter This is a book about one of Little Critter's classmates. It stresses that he is just a kid like Little Critter. The part I like is that while the "special" critter needs help with some things, so does Little Critter. They end up helping each other.

 

[WheeledTraveler]

I'm not sure if childrent's literature for you is including Teen/YA, but I've got a couple good suggestions along those lines:

Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson
Stoner and Spaz by Ron Koertge

For younger kids:
Karen (and it's sequels) by Marie Killilea

All three have main character with CP and are very well written to really show the characters as kids and people, not as disabilities (Karen is actually about Marie Killilea's daughter).

I'm currently writing my undergraduate thesis on disability in children's literature, but I won't recommend the books I'm using as they're ones that do it badly. I can look to see, however, if I can find again some articles I'd found awhile ago that had some good lists of books for children with characters who had disabilities in them if you'd like.

 

[BeckyScott]

We bought a copy of "The Autism Acceptance Book" by Ellen Sabin, and gave it to the school for Christmas. It's written at about a 3rd grade level, and primarily focuses on how everyone is different anyway. And it's set up to promote discussion, asks lots of questions.

Each chapter does focus mostly on just putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Like it will start out by asking how you would feel if such-and-such happened- like if you had to tell someone something but you couldn't get your mouth to work- and then how it relates to kids with autism. In some ways, though, the ideas would work for other disabilities no problem.

There are a few Max Lucado books that would work, although there is a Christian undertone that some schools might have a problem with. I can't get thru "You Are Special" without crying.

 

[SandrainNC]

Mine are specific to Down syndrome. We have "We'll Paint the Octopus Red". We also have "ABC for you and Me". It isn't really about Down syndrome but each letter has a picture of a child with Down syndrome.

Sandra

 

[coinkc]

Here are some that I have used in my classroom...

Tic Talks (tourette's syndrome...it is written by a 9 year old with tourette's)
by Dylan Peters
(Love this book! It is illustrated by Dylan's 6th grade buddy that year and is just fantastic.)


Everybody Has Something (each page has a child with "something" from as small as needing glasses to being in a wheelchair, etc.)
by Margaret Domnick

I know I have some others, but I will have to look on Tuesday when I go back to school.

 

[belle&beast]

I have used Hooway for Wodney Wat. It is about a child who cannot say his r sounds and he becomes the hero of the story.

 

[SandrainNC]

I would love to read that book about the "r" sound. I couldn't say my "r" sounds and had to go to speech in 2nd grade.


Sandra

 

[SueM in MN]

For younger kids:
Karen (and it's sequels) by Marie Killilea.

That's a book I never thought I would see anyone say they had read. The "Karen" books were first published in the early 1950s, so even when I read them, they were a look at the past. They are well written and interesting though.

eparent.com has a good library of books about/for children with disabilities of many kinds.

I haven't read Ballerina Dreams by Lauren Thompson (Author), Joann Ferrara (Author), James Estrin (Photographer). It looks good though.

One I really like is How It Feels to Live With a Physical Disability by Jill Krementz. It has their own stories written by kids between 6 and 16 with a variety of physical disabilities. Jill Krementz is a photographer and took the photographs of each child.

 

[mechurchlady]

My favourite book as a child was Simon who was a slowpoke. He would walk along slowly not wanting to keep up. Sort of like some kids like me I guess.

 

[lovespoohbear]

My Buddy (im not sure who the author of the book is) its a book about a boy who has Muscular Dystrophy and he gets a service dog.

 

[barkley]

the 'joey pigza' books by jack gantos.

mr. gantos manages to describe what it 'feels like' to have adhd extreemly well. i do have to say that the story lines in the books are a bit mature (very disfunctional family situations with alcoholism and anger managment issues) but i think they are a tremendous resource esp for the adolescent siblings of kids with adhd who can't understand why their sibling can't just 'stop it' or 'calm down' .

 

[fan_of_small_world]

Thank you so much to everyone who has replied! There are some wonderful suggestions here, and I do plan to look at each book mentioned. As I said, once my project is done, I'll post the list that I develop.

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WheeledTraveler, I'd love to learn more about your thesis - it sounds really interesting. Perhaps you can steer me away from books that I should avoid, lol!

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Another take on Wodney Wat - this was a book we were assigned to read for class discussion. The general consensus was actually on the negative side.

For those who have not read it, as mentioned above the main character cannot pronouce "r" correctly. He is teased unmercifully by his classmates, until a bully joins their class. During a game of Simon Says, Wodney is Simon. The bully, because she is new, does not understand Wodney's speech problem and follows his directions literally (i.e., when he says to "read" a sign, the class reads it, but the bully pulls up "weeds," since that's how his words came out). The class starts laughing at her instead of Wodney, and when he tells the class to "go rest," they lie down while she goes "West," never to return.

Most of my classmates disliked the fact that the author simply shifted the teasing from Wodney to the bully. They were concerned about the message this might send to young readers, for whom the story is written. At least two of the women in the class have children with speech issues, and they were among the most vocal against the book.

 

[stenickar]

Ian's Walk by Laurie Lears is a great book about having a sibling with autism.[/U]
Keep your ear on the ball by Genevieve Petrillo is a good book about a blind boy. HTH

 

[Schmeck]

Karen! I read her books when I was 12-13 years old. I think her inspiring life got me started in special education/early childhood education.

To the OP - I've got a bunch of Scholastic books that could be of interest, but they're crated away in the basement, which is a disaster after the hot water heater flooded out last weekend. I can dig them out Sunday, though. Are you just looking for children's books, or adult ones too? How about "A Circle of Children" and "Lovey"? Would those be of interest? (I read them 20 years ago, so not sure?) We also have a very large selection at our school library - but we're on vacation this week, sorry!

WheeledTraveler, thank you so much for mentioning Karen! Wonder if they have the books in our library? I'd love to read them again!

 

[clori]

I have a free downloabable coloring book designed for young kids with alopecia but it can proably be used to help with any disability that makes a child look different from the norm. My dd7 has alopecia and is missing over half of her hair. It is more of a teaching tool for the child's friends.

http://136.165.150.3/alopecia/alopecia-cb.html

 

[fan_of_small_world]

To the OP - I've got a bunch of Scholastic books that could be of interest, but they're crated away in the basement, which is a disaster after the hot water heater flooded out last weekend. I can dig them out Sunday, though. Are you just looking for children's books, or adult ones too? How about "A Circle of Children" and "Lovey"? Would those be of interest? (I read them 20 years ago, so not sure?) We also have a very large selection at our school library - but we're on vacation this week, sorry!

Thank you so much for the offer, but it sounds like you really have your hands full right now! Sorry about the hot water heater...we just barely averted disaster in a previous house when we just happened to notice it starting to leak. As if having to replace it wasn't bad enough, it was just a week before we sold the house - we didn't even get to use the new one! Ugh!

Anyway, if you happen upon the titles while you're working there, that's great, but please don't make more work for yourself! My course is on children's lit, so I'm focusing on titles that would work for elementary school-aged children.

Thanks again to everyone for your ideas!!

 

[belle&beast]

Another take on Wodney Wat - this was a book we were assigned to read for class discussion. The general consensus was actually on the negative side.

For those who have not read it, as mentioned above the main character cannot pronouce "r" correctly. He is teased unmercifully by his classmates, until a bully joins their class. During a game of Simon Says, Wodney is Simon. The bully, because she is new, does not understand Wodney's speech problem and follows his directions literally (i.e., when he says to "read" a sign, the class reads it, but the bully pulls up "weeds," since that's how his words came out). The class starts laughing at her instead of Wodney, and when he tells the class to "go rest," they lie down while she goes "West," never to return.

Most of my classmates disliked the fact that the author simply shifted the teasing from Wodney to the bully. They were concerned about the message this might send to young readers, for whom the story is written. At least two of the women in the class have children with speech issues, and they were among the most vocal against the book.

I can see that point, but in my experience working with kids in 3rd and 4th grade, it was a great conversation starter. We could talk about their feelings and how it hurts when they are teased. I also went into a full general ed. classroom and it was a way to talk about teasing and bullying. I think that it is a book that leads itself to many opportunities for conversation and it is not something that should just be read and not discussed.

I am a SLP, but I also have a DS4 with an IEP for speech. When he is older, I would have no problem with him reading that book. I think it helped many students see that they are not the only ones who have speech problems and boosted self esteem.

I was in a preschool classroom this week and they were reading "No Fair to Tigers." I did not hear the whole story, but the main character is in a wheelchair and I know there was a part in the story that she needed a store owner to build a ramp.

 

[MousekeMommy]

The ALA gives out an award biannually, The Schneider Family Book Award, for outstanding books depicting the experience of a child with a disability. I'm sure a quick google would bring up a list of these.
Good luck!