Books on Children with Disabilities

In this Kappan article, Donna Miller (Aaniiih Nakoda College, Montana) recommends books that give a balanced, thoughtful approach to disabilities and are suitable for secondary-school students:

Autism/Asperger syndrome:

• Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (Putnam, 2004)

• Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko (Dial Books, 2009)

• Mockingbird by Katherine Erskine (Puffin, 2011)

• Rules by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic, 2006)

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Random House, 2003)

ADHD:

• Joey Pigza Loses Control (and the other Joey Pigza books in the series) by Jack Gantos (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2000)

Tourette syndrome:

• Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio (Viking, 1998)

Visual impairment:

• Sees Behind Trees by Michael Dorris (Hyperion, 1996)

• Tangerine by Edward Bloor (Scholastic, 1997)

• The Window by Jeanette Ingold (Graphia, 1996)

Mental impairment

• Invisible by Pete Hautman (Simon & Schuster, 2006)

• Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser (Delacorte Press, 1998)

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Viking, 1938)

Hearing impairment

• The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan (Simon & Schuster, 1999)

Cerebral palsy:

• Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper (Atheneum Books, 2010)

• Small Steps by Louis Sachar (Delacorte Press, 2006)

• Stoner and Spaz by Ron Koertge (Candlewick Press, 2002)

Mobility/physical impairment:

• Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voight (Ballantine Books, 1986)

• Peeling the Onion by Wendy Orr (Laurel Leaf, 1999)

• The Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher (Dell, 1987)

• The Acorn People by Ron Jones (Bantam Books, 1976)

Learning Disabilities:

• Freak the Mighty by Rodman Filbrick (Scholastic, 1993)

• Niagara Falls, or Does It? by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver (Grosset & Dunlap, 2003)

“Literature Opens Doors for All Children” by Donna Miller in Phi Delta Kappan, December 2012/January 2013 (Vol. 94, #3, p. 28-33), www.kappanmagazine.org; Miller can be reached at donnamiller@itstriangle.com. 

From the Marshall Memo #465