Children's Books with Disability/Accessibility Themes – Selected from Good Reads

2 / / What's Wrong With Timmy?
byMaria Shriver
The Barnes & Noble Review
Maria Shriver offers a compassionate platform for discussion with this well-written story about disabilities. Influenced and inspired by her parent's involvement with the Special Olympics, as well as her husband's devotion to the cause, Shriver writes a tender tale about accepting others for who they are
5 / / Howie Helps Himself
byJoan Fassler
Though he enjoys life with his family and attends school, Howie, a child with cerebral palsy, wants more than anything else to be able to move his wheelchair by himself

8 / / We Can Do It!
byLaura Dwight
Photographs show five pre-school children, each with a disability, leading full, productive ad happy lives because they believe We Can Do It!
10 / / The Bravest Boy I Ever Knew
byLisa Eichlin
What makes someone brave? Michael wants to introduce you to someone very important. This boy is just like you. He loves sports, puzzles, and being outside. He loves to race Michael, often beating him. This boy is a great best friend. Michael wants to be just like him because he's the bravest boy Michael knows. But why does Michael think he's so brave? Find out in The Bravest Boy I Ever Knew
13 / / Can I Play Too?
byMo Willems
Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. In Can I Play Too? Gerald and Piggie meet a new snake friend who wants to join in a game of catch. But don't you need arms to catch?
14 / / Imogene's Antlers
byDavid Small
David Small's dryly comic story of a little girl who wakes one morning to discover she has grown antlers has delighted children since it was first published 15 years ago.
15 / / My Buddy
byAudrey Osofsky
Buddy is the best dog a boy could have. He and his master are always together. They play ball, and go for walks, and take good care of each other. Nothing can separate them. They're a team
17 / / The Berenstain Bears and the Wheelchair Commando (Big Chapter Books)
byStan Berenstain
Too-Tall makes fun of Harry and calls him "Wheels" because he's in a wheelchair. But Harry can handle it--he even challenges Too-Tall to a basketball game!
18 / / Someone Special, Just Like You
byEffie Lee Morris
Brown and Ortiz show that the differences that seem to separate children with handicaps from others are not important. What is important is the common delight in life--a desire to love, learn and play, and to be accepted for themselves as other children are.
21 / / My Brother, Matthew
byMary Thompson
A book especially for siblings. My Brother, Matthew is narrated by a young boy who describes the ups and downs of day-to-day life as he and his family adjust to his new brother, Matthew, who is born with a disability. David, the older siblings, wryly shares his experiences -- the worry, impatience, feeling left out, being talked down to my grownups -- and the positive ways in which he has built a unique relationship with his brother. Fully illustrated and sensitively written, this is a story that can help other siblings share their feelings and reassure them that their role in the family is very important
25 / / Andy Finds a Turtle
byNan Holcomb
Andy is told he's acting like a turtle because he's not in the mood to cooperate with his physical therapist. The story tells of Andy's frustrating search to discover what a turtle is. His disorder prevents him from verbalizing this seemingly simple question. The lesson he learns when he makes the discovery brings a happy ending . . . children and parents may greatly appreciate the portrayals of children with disabilities who have real feelings.
26 / / Our Teacher's in a Wheelchair
byMary Ellen Powers
Text and photographs depict the activities of Brian Hanson, who is able to lead an active existence as a nursery school teacher despite a partial paralysis requiring the use of a wheelchair
27 / / The Balancing Girl
byBerniece Rabe
Other editions
A first grader who is very good at balancing objects while in her wheelchair and on her crutches thinks up her greatest balancing act ever to benefit the school carnival
31 / / Now One Foot, Now the Other
byTomie dePaola
This touching story about a young boy coping with his grandfather's disability has long been one of Tomie dePaola's most popular picture books.

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Compiled September 2015 by SENSS PD Team