Books with characters who have disabilities

[humblebumble]

Please could you recommend any books that have children who have disabilities who are part of the book but their disability (seen or unseen) is not the main feature of the book. My son's class (he's 7) is doing a study on "differences" and what makes a community and his younger brother has a rare medical condition and I wanted to help the teacher show the children in the class that differences can come in many different forms.

Thanks in advance.

(I also posted this in Childrens books)

Theres a depressing lack of books where someone just happens to have a disability (in adult and childrens books).

Scope put together some books here

Thank you

Have a look here on the various headings:

www.healthybooks.org.uk/browse/

There are sections on learning disability, physical disability, etc

I so recall dd reading that floppy and kipper book where a dc is in a wheelchair and it is called 'the big hit'. I am a wheelchair user.

dd aged 6 leaned the word 'patronising' a bit earlier than most of her class.

Actually she learned 'patronising twaddle' and surprised a few people I think.

I wish things had improved in the last 10 years.

I am sure Horrid Henry has ADHD and possibly Aspergers! My son is also a Henry and looks identical to him and personality wise is similar. He has ADHD and ASD and really loves the Horrid Henry stories

Rachel Anderson has written several books using the disabled child as the main character.

"Jessie and the long short dress" about a little girl with Down Syndrome.

"Big Ben" about a lad leaving home to go to college.

She has written several more and received the Guardian prize for children's literature a few years ago.

Looking after Louis, main character has ASD. Gorgeous pictures and always makes me a bit choked up at the end.

Hank Zipzer written by Henry Wrinkler has dyslexia.

Lisa the Lacemaker is from a series written by Kathy Hoopman, I think the main character has Apergers.

The dangerous discoveries of Gully Potchard by Julie Lee is a children's novel set in Victorian times. There is a character (a young girl) and whilst her disability is not named, I assume it is cerebral palsy. It's a good book for slightly older children, nine plus I would say, I read it to my son and he enjoyed it. ( he has cp)

Rainbow Joe and Me is a book for young children with a blind adult character, lovely bright illustrations

Freddie and the fairy by Julia Donaldson features a hearing impaired fairy

The Sleepover - Irene Mooney has a character who is a wheelchair user

All the above are picture story books suitable for ages 4 - 7 ish I'd say

Dandylion by Lizzie Finlay given to DD2 who has GDD by my DM. Its apparently an empowering story about friendship and diversity but I hated it and sent it to the charity shop/

My son has SN. I self-pubbed a Kindle book for children featuring him as a character. I really wanted to just present him as a normal part of life, neither a source of inspiration nor something taboo, just normal.

I initially started writing for my older children (my younger son is unlikely to learn how to read). I decided I needed some material for them, and I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I sat down to write it myself instead.