A Face First<\/strong><\/p>\n Priscilla Cummings<\/strong><\/p>\n From Goodreads<\/a>:<\/p>\n After a catastrophic automobile accident, twelve-year-old Kelley wakes up to find her face and body severely burned. To recover, she must suffer through skin-graft operations, painful dressings, and hand exercises that seem akin to torture. Worst of all, she must wear a plastic mask so that her facial skin won’t grow back puffy and hard. How will she ever face the world again?<\/p>\n Disability Portrayed:\u00a0<\/strong>severe burns<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Free as a Bird<\/strong><\/p>\n Gina McMurchy-Barber<\/strong><\/p>\n From Goodreads<\/a>:<\/p>\n Born with Down syndrome, Ruby Jean Sharp comes from a time when being a developmentally disabled person could mean growing up behind locked doors and barred windows and being called names like “retard” and “moron.” When Ruby Jean’s caregiver and loving grandmother dies, her mother takes her to Woodlands School in New Westminster, British Columbia, and rarely visits. Disability Portrayed:\u00a0<\/strong>Down syndrome<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>Hello, Universe<\/strong><\/p>\n Erin Entrada Kelly<\/strong><\/p>\n From Goodreads<\/a>:<\/p>\n In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his loud and boisterous family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister Gen is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just act normal so that he can concentrate on basketball. They aren\u2019t friends — at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well. This disaster leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find the missing Virgil. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms.<\/p>\n Disability Portrayed:\u00a0<\/strong>deafness<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hurt Go Happy<\/strong><\/p>\n Ginny Rorby<\/strong><\/p>\n From Goodreads<\/a>:<\/p>\n Thirteen-year-old Joey Willis is used to being left out of conversations. Though she’s been deaf since the age of six, Joey’s mother has never allowed her to learn sign language. She strains to read the lips of those around her, but often fails. Disability Portrayed:\u00a0<\/strong>deafness<\/p>\n \n
\nAs Ruby Jean herself says: “Can’t say why they called it a school — a school’s a place you go for learnin an then after you get to go home. I never learnt much bout ledders and numbers, an I sure never got to go home.”
\nIt’s here in an institution that opened in 1878 and was originally called the Provincial Lunatic Asylum that Ruby Jean learns to survive isolation, boredom, and every kind of abuse. Just when she can hardly remember if she’s ever been happy, she learns a lesson about patience and perseverance from an old crow.<\/p>\n
\nEverything changes when Joey meets Dr. Charles Mansell and his baby chimpanzee, Sukari. Her new friends use sign language to communicate, and Joey secretly begins to learn to sign. Spending time with Charlie and Sukari, Joey has never been happier. She even starts making friends at school for the first time. But as Joey’s world blooms with possibilities, Charlie’s and Sukari’s choices begin to narrow–until Sukari’s very survival is in doubt.<\/p>\n