Lawrence Kid Picks: Chapter Books Featuring Characters with DisabilitiesLike this list

13 items

• Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

  Bowling, Dusti,

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  New friends and a mystery help Aden, thirteen, adjust to middle school and life at a dying western theme park in a new state, where her being born armless presents many challenges.

• OCDaniel

  King, Wesley

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  A thirteen-year-old boy's life revolves around hiding his obsessive compulsive disorder until a girl at school, who is unkindly nicknamed Psycho Sara, notices him for the first time and he gets a mysterious note that changes everything.

• Forget Me Not

  Terry, Ellie,

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  When her mother breaks up with yet another boyfriend, Calliope meets Jinsong at her latest middle school, who becomes her friend despite her Tourette syndrome and the embarrassment it can cause.

• A Boy Called Bat

  Arnold, Elana K.

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  When his veterinarian mom brings home a stray baby skunk that needs rehabilitation before it can be placed in a wild animal shelter, Bat, who has austim, resolves to prove that he is up to the challenge of caring for the skunk permanently.

• Show Me a Sign

  LeZotte, Ann Clare,

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  Mary Lambert has always felt safe and protected on her beloved island of Martha's Vineyard. Her great-great-grandfather was an early English settler and the first deaf islander. Now, in 1805, over a hundred years later, many people there --…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mockingbird

  (mok'ing-bûrd)

  Erskine, Kathryn

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  Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father.

• Braced

  Gerber, Alyson

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  When twelve-year-old Rachel learns that her scoliosis has worsened and she will need to wear a back brace to keep her spine straight, she is devastated; afraid that she will not be able to play soccer, and terrified that she will not be able to hide…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Kind of Spark

  McNicoll, Elle,

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  Middle schooler Addie is autistic, and this year will be one of great change. When the teacher she had hoped for gets sick, she is stuck with Ms. Murphy, a bully who doesn't want Addie in her class just because she is different. When Addie learns…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rules

  Lord, Cynthia

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  Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a friendship with an young paraplegic.

• Out of My Mind

  Draper, Sharon M. (Sharon Mills)

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  Fifth-grader Melody Brooks is a genius. The problem is, no one knows it. Melody has cerebral palsy, which has left her unable to speak or write. People write her off as mentally challenged, because she can’t share with them all she knows. Melody is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The War That Saved My Life

  Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker,

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  A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.

• You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P!

  Gino, Alex,

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  When her new baby sister is born deaf, Jilly makes an online connection with a fellow fantasy fan, who happens to be black and deaf, and begins to learn about the many obstacles that exist in the world for people who are different from her.

• Wonder

  Palacio, R. J.

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  Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear…Read moreRead more of this annotation