Disability Visibility For Young Readers

Rescue and Jessica

A Life-Changing Friendship

By: Jessica Kensky & Patrick Downes
Narrated by: John J. McDonough
Length: 11 minutes

Based on a real-life partnership, the heartening story of the love and teamwork between a girl and her service dog will illuminate and inspire. Rescue thought he'd grow up to be a Seeing Eye dog - it's the family business, after all. When he gets the news that he's better suited to being a service dog, he's worried that he's not up to the task.... Read more

Thank You, Mr. Falker

By: Patricia Polacco
Narrated by: Kate Forbes
Length: 17 minutes

Award-winning author Patricia Polacco based this story on her own childhood and the heroic teacher who helped her overcome her learning disability. Even though she is a wonderful artist who makes beautiful pictures with her crayons, Trisha can't figure out how to read. The other kids make fun of her, calling her terrible names like "Dummy." Then... Read more

Each Tiny Spark

By: Pablo Cartaya
Narrated by: Pablo Cartaya
Length: 5 hours 45 minutes

From award-winning author Pablo Cartaya comes a deeply moving middle grade novel about a daughter and father finding their way back to each other in the face of their changing family and community.

A SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD HONOR FOR MIDDLE GRADE

Emilia Torres has a wandering mind. It's hard for her to follow along at school, and sometimes she... Read more

Show Me a Sign (Show Me a Sign Trilogy, Book 1)

Show Me a Sign

By: Ann Clare LeZotte
Narrated by: Nora Hunter
Length: 6 hours 15 minutes

This piercing exploration of ableism and racism answers the call to dig deep, examine core beliefs, and question what is considered normal. Perfect for summer reading, distance learning, and school, peer, and family book groups.Deaf author and librarian Ann Clare LeZotte weaves a riveting Own Voices story inspired by the true history of a... Read more

Set Me Free (Show Me a Sign, Book 2)

Show Me a Sign

By: Ann Clare LeZotte
Narrated by: Nora Hunter
Length: 7 hours 3 minutes

A riveting standalone companion to the Schneider Family Book Award winner, Show Me a Sign by Deaf author and librarian, AnnClare LeZotte.Three years after being kidnapped as a "live specimen" in a cruel experiment to determine the cause of her deafness, MaryLambert has grown weary of domestic life on Martha's Vineyard, and even of her once... Read more

Sail Me Away Home (Show Me a Sign Trilogy, Book 3)

Show Me a Sign

By: Ann Clare LeZotte
Narrated by: Nora Hunter
Length: 6 hours 34 minutes

This gripping story, set in the world of the award-winning Show Me a Sign and Set Me Free, completes an unforgettable trilogy centering the d/Deaf experience."Thrilling, important, and profoundly moving. A true gift." -- Brian Selznick, creator of the New York Times bestsellers Big Tree and The Invention of Hugo Cabret, winner of the Caldecott... Read more

The War That Saved My Life

By: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
Length: 7 hours 37 minutes

Winner of the 2016 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production

An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War 2, from the acclaimed author of Jefferson’s Sons and for fans of Number the Stars.
 
Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to... Read more

Rain Reign

By: Ann M. Martin
Length: 4 hours 7 minutes

Rose Howard has OCD, Asperger's syndrome, and an obsession with homonyms (even her name is a homonym). She gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose's rules of homonyms, is very special. Rain was a lost dog Rose's father brought home. Rose and Rain are practically inseparable. And they are often home... Read more

Wildoak

By: C. C. Harrington
Narrated by: Camilia O'Grady
Length: 6 hours 28 minutes

When the fates of a snow leopard, a child, and an ancient forest collide, the unimaginable can happen. Perfect for fans of Pax and The One and Only Ivan.**Winner of the 2023 Schneider Family Book Award!*** "Nuanced and empowering." - Publisher's Weekly, starred review* "Memorably atmospheric." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Immersive." - The... Read more

Tune It Out

By: Jamie Sumner
Narrated by: Cindy Kay
Length: 5 hours 22 minutes

From the author of the acclaimed Roll with It comes a moving novel about a girl with a sensory processing disorder who has to find her own voice after her whole world turns upside down.

Lou Montgomery has the voice of an angel, or so her mother tells her and anyone else who will listen. But Lou can only hear the fear in her own voice. She’s never... Read more

Song for a Whale

By: Lynne Kelly
Narrated by: Abigail Revasch & Lynne Kelly
Length: 6 hours 34 minutes

In the spirit of modern-day classics like Fish in a Tree and Counting by 7s comes the story of a deaf girl's connection to a whale whose song can't be heard by his species, and the journey she takes to help him.

From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she's the only deaf person in her... Read more

Roll with It

Roll with It

By: Jamie Sumner
Narrated by: Candace Thaxton
Length: 4 hours 29 minutes

“A big-hearted story that’s as sweet as it is awesome.” —R.J. Palacio, author of Wonder
“An honest, emotionally rich take on disability, family, and growing up.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In the tradition of Wonder and Out of My Mind, this big-hearted middle grade debut tells the story of an irrepressible girl with cerebral palsy whose... Read more

Breathe and Count Back from Ten

By: Natalia Sylvester
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Length: 9 hours 13 minutes

In this gorgeously written and authentic novel, Verónica, a Peruvian-American teen with hip dysplasia, auditions to become a mermaid at a Central Florida theme park in the summer before her senior year, all while figuring out her first real boyfriend and how to feel safe in her own body.Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability.... Read more

Ellen Outside the Lines

By: A. J. Sass
Narrated by: Emma Galvin
Length: 6 hours 48 minutes

Rain Reign meets Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World in this heartfelt novel about a neurodivergent thirteen-year-old navigating changing friendships, a school trip, and expanding horizons.

Thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz feels most comfortable when her life is well planned out and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. She attends temple... Read more

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

Life of a Cactus

By: Dusti Bowling
Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
Length: 5 hours 26 minutes

“'Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus' will leave your heart open to all things you might think impossible. You'll quickly become friends with Aven as she navigates the horrors of being the new kid in Middle School, solves a mystery at the theme park her parents manage, and reveals that our disabilities don't define us. Read more

Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

Life of a Cactus

By: Dusti Bowling
Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
Length: 6 hours 35 minutes

“Bowling's descriptions are so incredibly inviting that once the story began I couldn't help but be completely immersed in the story and Aven's life. While the previous book was about a new life and secrets coming to the surface (and many other things) this one was about starting high school, making new friends and getting crushes on boys. This... Read more

Gut Reaction

By: Kirby Larson & Quinn Wyatt
Narrated by: Jen Taylor
Length: 5 hours 54 minutes

Critically acclaimed, bestselling author and Newbery Honor-winner, Kirby Larson, and her daughter, debut author, Quinn Wyatt, pen this gorgeously moving and often funny story that explores what living with a chronic illness is like. Inspired by Quinn's own personal journey, Gut Reaction is full of heart and humor and highlights the importance of... Read more

Cursed

By: Karol Ruth Silverstein
Narrated by: Laura Knight Keating
Length: 9 hours 24 minutes

I have this pathetic disease. Never mind what it’s called.

Life doesn’t play by the rules, so fourteen-year-old Ricky decides she won’t either. Ricky’s rules
allow for cursing, cutting school, and lying to the Disaster-Formerly-Known-As-Her-Parents. That is,
until her truancy is discovered and she’s facing the threat of having to repeat ninth... Read more

You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P! (Scholastic Gold)

By: Alex Gino
Narrated by: Nora Hunter, Blythe Auffarth, Cherise Boothe, Em Eldridge, Alex Gino, Maxwell Glick, Rachel Jacobs, Sisi Aisha Johnson, Katherine Lee McEwan, Taylor Meskimen, Marc Samuel & Miebaka Yohannes
Length: 4 hours 59 minutes

Alex Gino, the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Melissa, is back with another sensitive tale based on increasingly relevant social justice issues.Jilly thinks she's figured out how life works. But when her sister, Emma, is born deaf, she realizes how much she still has to learn. The world is going to treat Jilly, who is white and hearing,... Read more

El Deafo

By: Cece Bell
Narrated by: Sarah Tubert, Lexi Finigan, Jennifer Aquino, Fred Berman, Bailey Carr, Mx. Nicky Endres, Matt Godfrey, Avi Roque & Sanya Simmons
Length: 2 hours 32 minutes

Winner of the American Library Association’s 2024 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production! 

The beloved #1 New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor winning graphic novel, adapted for audio with a full cast and sound effects.

El Deafo is now streaming on Apple TV+. The Guardian called the animated series: "Sweet, funny, poignant... Read more