Polls for Our Souls discussion

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I Need Recommendations > Any books that have characters with disabilities?

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message 1: by ekaterina (new)

ekaterina (vvolchitsa) | 4 comments Hello!

I have to write a paper on a book with characters (can be a singular one) that have any type of ailment that is considered a disability (no mental health issues, though) and I'm kinda stuck on what I would like to read. I just want something that can be eye opening to someone who is able-bodied on issues that people with disabilities face (it can be a physical disability, learning or mental one). Does anyone have any good recommendations?

Thanks! :D


message 3: by Catherine (last edited Apr 17, 2020 06:11AM) (new)

Catherine | 392 comments No hate, I promise! I'd just like to say that mental illness can be a disability. I totally understand if you were asked to include others kind of disabilities for your paper, and I hope you'll find great books that will help you (I don't have any on my mind right now, I'll think about it). Just please think about how you say it, because it can be perceived as saying mental illness cannot be considered as a real disability.

Like I said, no hate, I'm not here to be mean to anyone, and I apologize in advance if my comment sounds as anything else than giving you something to think about this.


message 4: by Maddie (new)

Maddie Al capone does my shirts
Watchdog


message 5: by ekaterina (new)

ekaterina (vvolchitsa) | 4 comments BookWorm wrote: "The Acorn People"

Thank you very much! I'll check it out


message 6: by ekaterina (new)

ekaterina (vvolchitsa) | 4 comments Catherine wrote: "No hate, I promise! I'd just like to say that mental illness can be a disability. I totally understand if you were asked to include others kind of disabilities for your paper, and I hope you'll fin..."

Hi! No offense taken, don't worry.
I am sorry if I expressed myself wrongly! I definitely didn't mean to imply that, as someone who has dealt with mental illnesses most of my life, I get how impairing they are in our day to day life. What I actually meant by people with disabilities is that they have one that fits into the 13 disability categories recognized by IDEA. It's a paper for a special education class that I am taking, and alas I had specific criteria about the type of book I have to pick.


message 7: by ekaterina (new)

ekaterina (vvolchitsa) | 4 comments Madilynn wrote: "Al capone does my shirts
Watchdog"


Thank you!!


message 8: by Kenzie (new)

Kenzie | 1 comments Out of My Mind by: Sharon M. Draper


message 9: by MissBecka (new)

MissBecka Gee (missbeckagee) | 113 comments Not sure what kind of disabilities you are looking for, but here are a few different ones...
The Secret Garden (child in a wheelchair)
Cinder (amputee)
Everything, Everything (Combined Immunodeficiency)
The Nowhere Girls (autism)


message 10: by Catherine (last edited Apr 17, 2020 08:04AM) (new)

Catherine | 392 comments ekaterina wrote: "Catherine wrote: "No hate, I promise! I'd just like to say that mental illness can be a disability. I totally understand if you were asked to include others kind of disabilities for your paper, and..."

Thank you for your answer! I know that not all countries recognize mental illness as a disability, unfortunately. I'm lucky enough to live in France where I've finally been legally recognized as a disabled adult a few years ago. I'm very sorry to read that you're also suffering from mental illness, and I'm sending you all the hope I have and wish with all my heart for you to get better one day.

I've been thinking about books fitting your criteria, and while there are now many books with disabled characters (although not nearly enough yet), few of them focus on it and would be helpful to you when it's fiction... In nonfiction, there's Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto, The Still Point of the Turning World by Emily Rapp who tells the story of this mother who's disabled herself (you could also read her memoir Poster Child) and who lost her son to a degenerative disorder, and The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism. There's also the anthology Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out that's definitely worth a read, because it explores different kind of disabilities through 37 different voices, the prejudices of our society, and even sometimes the prejudice disabled people have against themselves.

I hope it will help you!


message 11: by Andrea (new)

Andrea | 60 comments The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
(ADS)
Great book and there's a successful play made after it, so maybe that gives you more to discuss in the paper? Seen the play and the way they illustrate how the main character experiences everything was great!


message 12: by Katelyn (new)

Katelyn Marie (katelynwrites0170) | 3 comments A Curse So Dark And Lonely contains a main character with cerebral palsy. Even though it isn't as severe as most cases, it is a road-block in some circumstances.


message 13: by S, Creator (new)

S | 258 comments Mod
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erksine


Jane Doe (sofaymantaconjane) (sofaymantaconjane) I don’t know if this is what you are looking for but this are two good books:
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott


message 15: by Celia (new)

Celia Buell (semi hiatus) (celiareadsbooks) | 35 comments I'm actually really into childhood cancer books (as a childhood cancer survivor myself) although the only two I've read are The Fault in Our Stars and After Ever After, which is actually the sequel to Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie but can be read as a standalone, and I have not yet read the first one.

Here is my list of all the cancer books I want to read or could find: Celia's Cancer Shelf


message 16: by Audrey_With_Books (last edited Jul 17, 2020 12:39AM) (new)

Audrey_With_Books (audrey_with_books_) | 433 comments Celia wrote: "I'm actually really into childhood cancer books (as a childhood cancer survivor myself) although the only two I've read are The Fault in Our Stars and After Ever After was such a great book!

I second that! The Fault in Our Stars was such a great book!


message 17: by Lynne (new)

Lynne | 2 comments A Quiet Kind of Thunder - the female lead is a selective mute and the male lead is deaf. Its a story of their relationship and their efforts to prove to others and themselves that they can live more independent lives.

Remind Me Who I Am, Again - the story of a mother and daughters dealing with dementia


message 18: by bookishcarli (new)

bookishcarli | 21 comments I recommend The Fault In Our Stars and Out of my Mind.


The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is a really good (but sad) book about two people with cancer, who fall in love. You will cry over this book.


Out of my Mind by Sharon M Draper is a book about a young girl who is put into a disabled children’s class, where they learn kindergarten level stuff, even though Melody (the main character) is very smart. However, she can’t talk and has a disability that makes it so she can’t move well and has to use a wheelchair.


message 19: by Abigail (new)

Abigail Jose (abzhozay) You’ll Miss me When I’m Gone by Rachel Lynn Solomon — two twins girls, one of them inherited Huntington’s disease


message 20: by Heather (new)

Heather | 97 comments B. R. Kingsolver's Rosie O'Grady's Bar series has an autistic character. He's not the MC though, just FYI


Beagle Lover (Avid Reader) (beaglelover55) | 166 comments "This Is Not a Love Scene." The MC has a rare form of MD and is restricted to a motorized wheelchair. Excellent book.


message 22: by Audrey (new)

Audrey (niceyackerman) | 342 comments The Prisoner of Cell 25 -- Tourette's
Borderline -- multiple


message 23: by Michael (new)

Michael | 70 comments You could try RJ Barker's Wounded Kingdom trilogy, the main character (Girton club-foot) has a disability.


message 24: by Alice ☁ (new)

Alice ☁ (alicesbookshelf) The peculiar miracles of Antoinette Martin by Stephanie Knipper (I think...)


message 25: by Tanyx (new)

Tanyx | 7 comments Kind Of An Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender has a deaf li!


message 26: by Tacey Raye (new)

Tacey Raye | 12 comments Not if I See You First is an amazing book about a blind girl.


Princessofbookaholics | 2 comments Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens is an amazing collection of short stories about disabled teens! Highly recommend!


message 28: by Samantha (WLABB) (new)

Samantha (WLABB) (samanthawlabb) | 13 comments Sick Kids in Love, The Silence Between Us, Finding Balance - YA
The Bergman Brothers books by Chloe Liese - NA
I second Out of My Head - MG
The Aven Green books - MG


message 29: by shelby ♡ (new)

shelby ♡ (abookisheducation) For fantasy YA - A curse so dark and lonely, the MC has Cerebral Palsy! another good book is the storm crow! the mc has depression and i thought the author wrote about it well!


message 31: by Tricia (new)

Tricia Toney | 63 comments I read a zombie book where the heroine is wheelchair bound and suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Survival Kit


message 32: by Khushi (new)

Khushi (blindandbookish) | 29 comments Hi
Please try to’the year we fell down’
Though i haven’t read the book yet its on my TBR
Also try to go for #OwnVoices stories for good disability Rep.
Disability in kidlit is a good resource
Hth


message 33: by Andrea (new)

Andrea L | 31 comments What about Melyssa Winchester serie Count on Me? On #2 the main female character is deaf.
The rest of characters are on the spectrum, which are not disabilities.


miya &#x1f56f;️ (localkokomimain) Warrior Cats: The Power of Three to Warrior Cats: The Broken Code (and more in the future) <—— Jayfeather (blind)


message 35: by Brian (new)

Brian Fagan | 38 comments Flowers for Algernon.


message 36: by J (new)

J that Holden Caulfield had some kind of personality disorder in The Catcher in the Rye.


message 37: by 几ㄖ几丨 (new)

几ㄖ几丨 (sarcasticwatermelon) | 37 comments The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.


message 38: by Janhavi (new)

Janhavi | 8 comments You could try Master of Sorrows, it’s a fantasy where the main character is physically disabled.


message 39: by elena ✧˖° (new)

elena ✧˖° (ebunker1) | 0 comments Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus


message 40: by amaka (new)

amaka (amakaka) Out of my Mind


message 42: by Morgan (new)

Morgan Young | 31 comments Just finished reading The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach. It's a unique (and sad) story about a severely disabled teenaged boy and dying girl doomed to spend their lives in a soviet hospital in Belarus. It touches on many issues, actually.
I enjoyed reading this book.


message 43: by -ˏˋclaraˊˎ- (new)

-ˏˋclaraˊˎ- (taleofteacups) | 6 comments Even if we break! Just finished it and loved it.


miya &#x1f56f;️ (localkokomimain) Warrior Cats
so many cats with disabilities


miya &#x1f56f;️ (localkokomimain) wof


Jess (oracle_of_madness) (oracle_of_madness) Turtles All the Way Down, the main character has a mental health issue that causes her to be a kind of super hypochondriac, does anyone know a better description?
anyways, it affected all areas of her life, with just added anxiety also, it's a really great story, a murder mystery, also sad and yet still optimistic


message 48: by Melliott (new)

Melliott (goodreadscommelliott) | 510 comments A really good one is Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X. Stork. Marcelo is a high-functioning autistic boy with a father who's trying to force him to aspire to "normal," with no understanding of what that means for Marcelo. It's beautifully told, with sympathetic characters.

I just finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and the main character is born mute—he can hear but not speak. But be prepared for a lot of tragedy.

Another wonderful book is She Is Not Invisible, by Marcus Sedgwick. The MC is blind, and courageously goes "looking" for her missing father in New York City with only the assistance of her bright seven-year-old brother.


message 49: by Melliott (new)

Melliott (goodreadscommelliott) | 510 comments Geez, just realized you asked this question in April. I'm sure your paper is long finished! Well, read the above anyway, they're all great books.


message 50: by J (new)

J Red Dragon features a blind character.


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