Warning: Undefined variable $archive_title in /home/hopedlao/inclusiviread.hopedla.org/wp-content/themes/riba-lite/inc/components/breadcrumbs/class.mt-breadcrumbs.php on line 525
Head Above Water
S.L. Rottman
From Goodreads:
For a sixteen-year-old high school junior, Skye has a lot on her plate. As she faces the challenges of caring for her disabled brother and making time for school, swimming, and a boyfriend, Skye begins to gain a new perspective into what is truly important in her life.
With her mother holding down two jobs to support the family since Skye’s father left years ago, Skye is given the primary responsibility of caring for her older brother Sunny, who has Down syndrome.
Skye’s relationship with her brother constantly challenges and sometimes frustrates her. All the while, Skye is trying to maintain her GPA, and she is training intensely to qualify for the state championships as a member of her high school swim team, in hopes of earning a college scholarship. She is also struggling to come to terms with her feelings for her boyfriend, who wants more from her than she is ready to give.
Disability Portrayed: Down syndrome
The Key to Every Thing
Pat Schmatz
From Goodreads:
Tash didn’t want to go to camp, didn’t want to spend the summer with a bunch of strangers, didn’t want to be separated from the only two people she has ever been able to count on: her uncle Kevin, who saved her from foster care, and Cap’n Jackie, who lives next door. Camp turns out to be pretty fun, actually, but when Tash returns home, Cap’n Jackie is gone. And Tash needs her — the made-up stories of dolphin-dragons, the warm cookies that made everything all right after a fight, the key Cap’n Jackie always insisted had magic in it. The Captain always said all Tash had to do was hold it tight and the magic would come. Was it true? Could the key bring Cap’n Jackie back? In a heartfelt and stunningly written story, Pat Schmatz introduces readers to a tenacious, fiercely loyal girl struggling to let go of the fantasies and fears of her childhood . . . and say yes to everything that lies ahead.
Disability Portrayed: unspecified mental illness
Saving June
Hannah Harrington
From Goodreads:
If she’d waited less than two weeks, she’d be June who died in June. But I guess my sister didn’t consider that.’
Harper Scott’s older sister has always been the perfect one — so when June takes her own life a week before her high school graduation, sixteen-year-old Harper is devastated. Everyone’s sorry, but no one can explain why.
When her divorcing parents decide to split her sister’s ashes into his-and-her urns, Harper takes matters into her own hands. She’ll steal the ashes and drive cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going — California.
Enter Jake Tolan. He’s a boy with a bad attitude, a classic-rock obsession and nothing in common with Harper’s sister. But Jake had a connection with June, and when he insists on joining them, Harper’s just desperate enough to let him. With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanour and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what she needs.
Except June wasn’t the only one hiding something. Jake’s keeping a secret that has the power to turn Harper’s life upside down — again.
Disability Portrayed: depression, suicidal ideation