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Natalie's Book List

This list is created to give people an idea of good books to read to learn more about disability, teach others about disability and/or engage with materials by people with disabilities. This list includes books that are good companions to read alongside my Volunteer Manual. I have worked to grab from authors with different identities and perspectives on disability. This list is by no means comprehensive or perfect. While I have read many of these books, the majority are still on my to-read list (which keeps growing). My primary genre is the “educational” books, so I know less about the others. My hope is that each of these books show disability in an uplifting and anti-ableist manner, but I can’t guarantee that. My recommendation is to have an open mind, be a critical reader and read multiple books from multiple perspectives to more fully understand the disabled experience.  

 

PDF of the List: 

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Top Five Books (that I think that you should read):

  1. Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judy Heumann (also a young readers version)*

  2. A Disability History of the United States by Kim Nielsen

  3. Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong*

  4. Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha*

  5. Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally by Emily Ladau*

 

On my to-read list: 

  • About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times by Peter Catapano & Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

  • Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon

  • You Will Dream New Dreams by Stanley Kim and Kim Schive

 

Books in TCI’s Library (PLANNED):

  • Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judy Heumann (also a young readers version)*

  • A Disability History of the United States by Kim Nielsen

  • Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong*

  • Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally by Emily Ladau*

  • About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times by Peter Catapano & Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

  • Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha*

  • The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love With Me by Keah Brown*

  • Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc*

  • Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities by Allison Carey

  • Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon

  • A Different Kind of Perfect by Cindy Dowling, Neil Nicoll, and Bernadette Thomas

  • Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

  • Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

  • We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch and Anne McGuire

  • I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott

  • All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans With Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel

  • Just Ask! by Sonia Sotomayor

  • Sam’s Super Seats by Keah Brown*

  • Benji, the Bad Day, and Me by Sally J. Pla

  • The Deaf Musicians by Pete Seeger and Paul DuBois Jacob

  • As Brave as You by Jason Reynolds

  • All He Knew by Helen Frost

  • Leo and the Octopus by Isabell Marinov and Chris Nixon

 

Educational Books

  • Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judy Heumann (also a young readers version)*

  • Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong*

  • About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times by Peter Catapano & Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

  • Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities by Allison Carey

  • Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

  • On the Margins of Citizenship: Intellectual Disability and Civil Rights in 20th Century America by Allison Carey

  • Disability and International Development by David Cobley

  • Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid by Shayda Kafai*

  • Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc*

  • Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability by Aimi Hamraie

  • The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love With Me by Keah Brown*

  • Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment by James Charlton

  • Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

  • Life Animated by Ron Suskind

  • Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon

  • A Different Kind of Perfect by Cindy Dowling, Neil Nicoll, and Bernadette Thomas

  • Becoming Citizens

  • Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World by Ben Mattlin*

 

Picture Books

  • Leo and the Octopus by Isabell Marinov and Chris Nixon

  • We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch and Anne McGuire

  • I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott

  • Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes

  • All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans With Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel

  • Just Ask! by Sonia Sotomayor

  • Fauja Singh Keeps Going by Simran Jeet Singh

  • Sam’s Super Seats by Keah Brown*

  • I am Helen Keller by Brad Meltzer

  • Benji, the Bad Day, and Me by Sally J. Pla

 

Fiction Books (list includes young adults genre and adult genre)

  • Michael Vey Series by Richard Paul Evans

  • The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

  • Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens by Marieke Nijkamp*

  • The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais*

  • Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

  • Wonder by R. J. Palacio

  • A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan*

  • Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

  • As Brave as You by Jason Reynolds

  • All He Knew by Helen Frost

 

* Book is written by a person who identifies as having a disability

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