Dexter doesn't need pity, and neither will his sisters.
They may need to hear stories about cool people, doing cool things... while in a wheelchair.
We'll need a list of books we might be able to have read at Dexter's pre-school... books to help his peers better understand his cerebral palsy and vision impairment.
And, occasionally, we'll need books for ourselves... books for research and books to remind us we are not alone in this tough new adventure.
So, we've tripped through one website and another, collecting a list of books... books about people with special needs... books with brave, stubborn, strong, resilient, cheeky, loving and confident characters, who also have a disability.
We sorted them as: cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, vision impairments, hearing impairments, autism/Aspergers, limb differences and 'various'.
This post contains the books relating to wheelchairs.
To go to the books with the other books, click on the links:
cerebral palsy
vision and hearing impairments
Down syndrome
Aspergers Syndrome and Autism
limb differences
various (muscular dystrophy, facial deformity, ADHD)
Feel free to let us know of other great books out there.
Pip's class are sending off big red helium balloons to celebrate their school's 100th anniversary.
They ask the people who find them to tell them how far they'd gone. One lands just down the road, one is found in the next town - but Pip's flies all the way to Buckingham Palace!
And Pip gets an invitation to have tea with the Queen...
It's for readers of about 5 to 9 years in age. Pip's in a wheelchair, but that only shows up in Kate Pankhurst's wonderful illustrations, as we see all the pupils at Sunnyside Primary let off a helium balloon to celebrate the school's 100th year anniversary.
When Nicky's Aunt Flora asks her to be a bridesmaid, Nicky agrees. But she isn't very happy about it. She doesn't like frilly dresses and she suffers from hay fever. However, with her mother's help it all goes well. Mother is a wheelchair user. Commissioned by the Spinal Injury Association to provide stories with which their members can identify.
Overview I used to feel left out of things because I'm in a wheelchair. I thought I couldn't run around and play like the other kids. Then one day, while I watched my friends play basketball, I had an idea. I decided that although I couldn't leave my wheelchair, I too could learn how to play the game. It took lots of practice, sometimes on my own, and sometimes with help from my parents. But I kept on getting better at the game until finally I became part of the team!
Basant is here, with feasts and parties to celebrate the arrival of spring. But what Malik is looking forward to most is doing battle from his rooftop with Falcon, the special kite he has built for speed. Today is Malik’s chance to be the best kite fighter, the king of Basant. In two fierce battles, Malik takes down the kites flown by the bully next door. Then Malik moves on, guiding Falcon into leaps, swirls, and dives, slashing strings and plucking kites from the sky. By the end of the day, Malik has a big pile of captured kites. He is the king! But then the bully reappears, trying to take a kite from a girl in the alley below. With a sudden act of kingly generosity, Malik finds the perfect way to help the girl. This lively, contemporary story introduces readers to a centuries-old festival and the traditional sport of kite fighting, and to a spirited, determined young boy who masters the sport while finding his own way to face and overcome life’s challenges.
A small boy, with the aid of his energetic mother, her wheelchair "zooming machine" and a bit of imagination, pretends that he is on a train, a spaceship, and more.
As with all good books, the illustrations bring the story to life. We meet seven-year-old Freya, who receives an invitation to have tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. After a rather awkward introduction, Freya and the Queen discover that they have more in common than you might think. We learn that the Queen likes to eat beans on toast, she likes to dance and she is an expert at making the kind of cupcakes that Freya’s brother Christopher adores. On a later visit, Christopher gets to meet the Queen too. (Christopher is in a wheelchair)
'Your uncle is amazing', Mia's friends tell her. 'Yes', agrees Mia. He is magic. Mia's Uncle Robbie is amazing - he knows lots of magic tricks, like how to produce an egg from Mia's ear, or how to turn a red hanky into a green one. One kind of magic he hasn't yet learnt, however, is how to make his legs work. But this doesn't stop him from being the best uncle Mia could wish for!
Jealous of her invalid sister's royal treatment as she sits in her wheelchair, Patty Jean tries out the conveyance and discovers life in a wheelchair is no fun at all.
This picture book is an adaptation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the classic folktale retold with a special-needs twist. Children will find all of the familiar characters and scenes from the original story, as well as a few surprises-Baby Bear uses a wheelchair, goes to physical therapy while his porridge cools, and ultimately makes friends with Goldilocks. This new version is especially appealing to children with physical disabilities. It's also an entertaining tale for all children, with or without special needs.
Ruby and Sam are given an ultimatum by their teacher: either they present a project on the Olympic Games or will not be allowed to go on their school trip. Creating a time machine, using Sam's spare wheelchair, they travel from the beginning of the Olympics in Athens to the Beijing Olympics of 2008.
Susan laughs, she sings. she rides, she swings.
She gets angry, she gets sad, she is good, she is bad...
Told in rhyme, this story follows Susan through a series of familiar activities. She swims with her father, works hard in school, plays with her friends -- and even rides a horse. Lively, thoughtfully drawn illustrations reveal a portrait of a busy, happy little girl with whom younger readers will identify. Not until the end of the story is it revealed that Susan uses a wheelchair. Told with insight, and without sentimentality, here is an inspiring look at one spunky little girl whose physical disability is never seen as a handicap.
Tillie McGillie lives at the top of very tall thin building with 82 steps. She also has two wobbly legs and a wheelchair. She lives with four knitting aunts, three puffing uncles and a gran who's nearly a fairy. When Gran waves her magic hanky, Tillie has a fantastical, uplifting adventure.
Welly Walks is a book produced in association with the charity Whizz-Kidz which highlights the mobility issues faced by some children with disabilities. The story is formed mainly of pictures with the use of adjectives to describe the actions of a girl and her wheelchair bound brother. Both children wearing their wellies head out to play in the puddles before their mum chooses to join them. After getting soaked with the fallen rain water the children and their mum head home to dry off before sharing a hot chocolate and a story.
Crazy about basketball, twelve-year-old Sam Davis longs to be a part of the team that practices outside his window. But Sam’s different from the other boys: he has cerebral palsy. Confined to a wheelchair, Sam’s never touched a basketball. He’s never even been to school.
It’s 1968, and only a few enlightened educators understand that a boy like Sam might have a brain that’s as good as anybody else’s. When the Stirling Junior High principal finally agrees to let Sam enter sixth grade, Sam gets his chance to move into the world beyond his window.
All Sam knows about school, he’s learned from Miss Perkins, the English lady who cleans his apartment. Perkins spends hours reading to Sam about Winston Churchill. Sam knows so much about him that Winnie— as they call him—starts talking to Sam in his head. At first, Sam doesn't understand what a boy in a wheelchair has in common with one of the world’s greatest leaders, but Winnie says, Don't you see Sam? I was just a boy once, too. A boy nobody believed in.
Young daredevil Lauretta puts her brand-new wheelchair to the ultimate test--and saves her brother!
Lauretta's mother takes her to buy a new wheelchair, but Lauretta isn't satisfied with a regular five-speed or ten-speed model. No, she insists on the 92-speed, black, silver, and red dirt-bike wheelchair. When she gets a speeding ticket during a one-day tryout, her parents insist that the chair be returned to the store . . . until Lauretta's older brother has an accident and only one person can whisk him to the hospital on time--Lauretta, in her amazing wheelchair!
A boy and his grandfather watch as a baby seal is born on the rocks near their home and from that day a special friendship is created between them. Despite his disability, the boy is a keen surfer, and he enjoys many afternoons surfing with the seals. One day, however, he gets into trouble in rough seas, and the young seal saves him. Their friendship brings happiness and meaning at the important stages of the boy's life.
Simon is a typical teenager – in every way except one. Simon likes girls, weekends and enjoys mucking about and playing practical jokes. But what is different is that Simon has muscular dystrophy – he is in a wheelchair and doesn't have long to live. See Ya, Simon is told by Simon's best friend, Nathan.
Funny, moving and devastatingly honest, it tells of their last year together.
Winner of the Times Educational Supplement Nasen Award.
Winner of the 1999 UNESCO prize and IBBY's Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities award, Sosu's Call by Ghanaian author/illustrator Meshack Asare is a story of heroism and resolve. Sosu is all alone in his family's compound when disaster strikes. The waters are rising, and most of the people of the village are in the fields. The only ones left are the very old and the very young. And Sosu, who cannot walk. Somehow he manages to make his way through the rising waters up the hill to the drum shed, where he sounds the alarm and saves the village.