It’s important to see diversity in our books, and disability rep is no exception. It’s certainly come a long way from how it always used to be portrayed: inaccurate at best, offensive, degrading, and pushing misinformation at worst. There is still some of that, unfortunately, but there are also lots of great books with disabled main characters and/or other characters that are done well. You can learn more about a few of them below.
Hummingbird by Natalie Lloyd
Olive is 12 years old, homeschooled, and sick of others seeing her as “fragile” due to having osteogenesis imperfecta, also called brittle bone disease. She’s excited when her parents let her go to Macklemore Elementary, and she’s dying to make friends — but a horrid first day ruins her dreams of fitting in.
Then she hears rumors about a magical hummingbird that lives near the school, and it can grant wishes! This can solve her problems, and if she proves herself worthy, it will make her dearest wish come true! However, she can’t do it on her own, so she teams up with unlikely allies to learn about the bird. And on the journey, she may learn that fragile places lead to the most amazing magic ever.
Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata
Isaac just wants to be a functional college student, but it’s exhausting managing his epilepsy. He tries keeping a balance between his daily schedule and seizure triggers, but he can’t find a way to make it work, even with seizure medication. Schoolwork never ends, doctors don’t listen, his family refuses to believe that he has epilepsy, and his social life crumbles as he feels more and more alone due to his illness. Even with a new, unexpected friend, there’s so much piling up that Isaac feels that his epilepsy may be unbeatable.
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Jessica thinks her life is ruined after losing a leg in a car accident. Even hearing that she will be able to walk with a prosthetic leg doesn’t help — after all, what’s the point if she can’t run? As she goes through all this change, she feels both in the spotlight and unseen.
People who don’t know what to tell her pretend that she’s not there, and Jessica is embarrassed when she realizes she’s done the same with a girl named Rosa, who has cerebral palsy. Rosa, the same girl who’s tutoring her in all the math she missed, and who sees right to her heart. As people, from family to a coach to track teammates, support her, Jessica may run again. But that’s not enough now. She doesn’t want to finish races by herself anymore — she wants Rosa to come with her.
One for All by Lillie Lainoff
Tania de Batz feels best with a sword in her hand. Everyone thinks that her persistent dizziness makes her “a sick girl” and that’s all. She wants to be like her father, a strong fencer and former Musketeer. But after he is brutally murdered, Tania attends finishing school, which was his dying wish. She soon realizes, however, that L’Académie des Mariées is not a finishing school. It’s a secret training area for new Musketeers for women who are socialites on the outside but have daggers strapped under their skirts, seduce men, and protect France.
With her new sisters, Tania finally feels a sense of purpose and belonging. However, it changes when she meets her new target, Étienne, while unraveling a potential assassination plot. He’s sweet and charming, and he might know what really happened to her father. She’s torn between her duty and dizzying emotion, and she must choose where her loyalties are, or risk losing everything.
The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
Delaney Meyers-Petrov is sick of being seen as fragile because she’s Deaf. When she gets accepted to a prestigious program at Godbole University to learn to slip between parallel worlds, she’s excited to prove herself. But the semester starts poorly when professors won’t accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman is interested in Delaney’s talents.
Colton Prixe died at nine years old, but he woke up weeks later near a green-eyed young girl. Twelve years later, Delaney has stumbled back into his life, but Colton has been ordered away from her, and voices call to her from the shadows. Delaney also wants to stay away from him, but after a student dies, they’re forced to form a shaky alliance, delving into university secrets. However, they discover the price of going between worlds when they come up against something ancient and nameless, an enemy that will destroy them, and their partnership, for good unless they stop it.
This shortlist will hopefully help you find and read even more books that feature accurate disability rep. Happy reading!
Click here for an article on books that redefine disability representation.
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