International Day of Persons with Disability is celebrated worldwide and aims to promote a positive image of people with disability and showcase their skills, abilities, contributions and achievements. With young children such as the ones I teach it is important that they see that children with disabilities are more like them, than different from them, and four picture books that stress this, and in the process show their main characters positively are:
* Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
* Dan and Diesel by Charlotte Hudson and Lindsey Gardiner
The added bonus with both of these books is that the reader doesn't know Susan and Dan are disabled until the very end. Susan is in a wheelchair and Dan is blind.
* Arabella by Wendy Orr and Kim Gamble
* Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman
Both of these books are about young boys and their grandfathers. In each the boy is eager to assert his independence and manages to do so, one through sailing alone and the other surfing. Both have beautiful illustrations and plenty of drama so they make for good discussions about risktaking.
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