Books

[mulsey]

Can anyone recommend any good books that have disabled children as the characters? Preferably for younger children, but I will look at any book suggested to me.
thx folks

bump... i'd be really interested in the outcome of this one too

ok, just off the top of my head there´s
where´s chimpy? - little girl with DS has lost her cuddly toy and goes off looking for it, really sweet, DS is not mentioned and is no issue

There´s also the A Day With Russ series, also featuring a little boy with DS having all sorts of everyday adventures

My Friend Isabelle is about the friendship between a preschooler with DS and one without. It´s really lovely and beautifully drawn, the message is that differences are what makes the world so great.

sorry about the lack of links, but you can find all these on amazon

they´re all for under 6 year olds

Is it specifically DS books you're after? If so, this isn't relevant, but there's a book called 'Topsy & Tim Make A New Friend' which is about a girl in a wheelchair joining their class at school. Haven't read it though, so don't know what it's like.

Hello
There is a new website called Bookmark which is all about books and disabilities and there might be a few suggestions on there.

That's a really interesting website Raindog - thanks for posting.

This is an issue quite close to my heart as I work for a book publisher and have recently been toying with the idea of raising the issue of the lack of representation of children with disabilities in our books.

I think Scope are doing something related to this issue too.

As for books - my friend has leant me some - one very old called 'Don't Forget Tom' which has some outdated language but is otherwise quite a nice simple way to explain disability. and the other 'what's wrong with Timmy' which was written by Arnie Shwarzenager's wife! It is a bit american for my taste. Also these are both books that try to explain disability rather than just having disabled characters which personally I would much prefer.

thx everyone for your suggestions, they are all very much appreciated and Im sure that I will find something appropriate.

This is a poser though, Im looking for a book which depicts a disabled child being bullied and how it was dealt with. This is for school aged children, many of whom are wheelchair users. I will leave it with you all.

mulsey, we have a book called "The Animal Boogie" by Debbie Harter (Barefoot Books) which comes with a CD so you can sing (and dance/do the actions) along. There is a different child (and animal) on each page and one of the children is a girl in a wheelchair (flapping her arms with the bird). DS1 (4) and DS2 (2) love this book - but it is the only one in our collection that I can think of that has a disabled character. Nothing to do with bullying though, I'm afraid.

If I come across anything though I will post again - I am quite interested in children's books.