Children's Book Suggestions | Disability Pride Month 2026

A few of our favorite books about kids with disabilities, including learning disabilities and neurodivergence, published in 2025. For more book ideas, check out our Disability Pride Month 2025 and 2024 lists (picture books and chapter books), our Autism Awareness Month and Mental Health Awareness Month book lists, or browse the library catalog.

More great books are honored annually with the Schneider Family Book Award.

Updated January 30, 2026
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Oregon City Public Library
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Rose signs good morning!
Ayling-Ellis, Rose
Rose Ayling-Ellis combines sweet stories and sign language in this picture book teaching ASL to young children. Join Rose and Kitten Casper in this early morning story for 0-5 year olds and learn to sign along the way. Every page shows Baby Rose introducing a new sign to her...

Board Book (Age 0-2)

Rose signs good night!
Ayling-Ellis, Rose
Rose Ayling-Ellis combines sweet stories and sign language in this picture book teaching ASL to young children. Join Rose and Kitten Casper in this bedtime story for 0-5 year olds and learn to sign along the way. Every page shows Baby Rose introducing a new sign to her Kitten...

Board Book (Age 0-2)

Mama car
Catchpole, Lucy
From author and disabled parent Lucy Catchpole, this gentle and accessible picture book celebrates a wonderful part of one child's life: her mother's wheelchair. I have a tricycle. Daddy has a big car. And Mama has a Mama Car.   ...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Wish in a tree
Hunt, Lynda Mullaly
Paper Book
An uplifting picture book celebrating neurodiversity, starring characters from Lynda Mullaly Hunt's New York Times bestselling novel Fish in a Tree Oliver's brain is a volcano of ideas--always bubbling with questions. This makes it hard to focus at school, and...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

I hear the snow, I feel the sea
Milusich, Janice
In this lyrical picture book illustrated by a two-time Caldecott Medalist, share in a blind child's joyful experience of the changing seasons. A SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD HONOR Where I live, seasons change. I know because my fingers and toes, my ears, my...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

This is how we talk : a celebration of disability and connection
Slice, Jessica
Paper Book
From the creators of This Is How We Play is a new jubilant, inclusive, luminously illustrated picture book that celebrates all the ways we communicate with each other. A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR We sign, write, clap! We tap, stim,...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

We are the scrappy ones
Taussig, Rebekah
Paper Book
We are the scrappy ones. / We live, we adapt, we defy. / Made of stardust and grit, we are spectacular. Children with disabilities experience the world in all kinds of ways. Yet one thing they share is navigating a world that doesn't always make space for them as they are. Existing on the...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Bitsy Bat, team star
Windness, Kaz
Paper Book
Bitsy meets a new nonspeaking student who uses an AAC device and sign language at school and learns the importance of being a star teammate in this sequel to Bitsy Bat, School Star from Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor-winning author-illustrator Kaz Windness. Bitsy...

Picture Book (Age 4-8)

Mia the masterpiece : an empowering story about inclusivity and growing up with Down Syndrome
Armstrong, Mia
Paper Book
Tween actress Mia Armstrong celebrates her fun, funny, beautiful childhood living with Down syndrome in this debut picture book. Don't miss Mia in A Christmas in New Hope, streaming now! Mia likes many of the things other people like--going to the beach, the...

Early Reader (Grades K-2)

Henry's picture-perfect day
Bailey, Jenn
Paper Book
The third chapter book in the award-winning Henry series, starring a sweet and sensitive child on the autism spectrum, is a story about embracing life's messier moments and one's own uniqueness. It is Picture Day for Classroom Ten! Mrs. Tanaka says that the...

Early Reader (Grades K-2)

Rachel Friedman Is Not the Queen
Kapit, Sarah/ Kote, Genevieve (ILT)
Paper Book
In this heartwarming chapter book, Rachel celebrates Purim--and learns the joy of sharing the stage. Rachel is so excited about Purim, and she's especially excited to star in her Hebrew school's Purim spiel! She'll get to dress up like a queen and put on a play in front of...

Bridging Fiction (Grades 2-4)

The emerald egg
Whaley, Kayla
Paper Book
Solve Animal Mysteries from A to Z! Inspired by Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries series, this exciting animal adventure mystery is perfect for budding young chapter book readers. This time, 8-year-old Abbi and her friends solve the mystery of missing emu egg! E IS FOR EMU EGG . . .

Bridging Fiction (Grades 2-4)

Bat and the business of ferrets
Arnold, Elana K.
Paper Book
The bestselling Bat returns! Bat and the Business of Ferrets is the fourth title in National Book Award finalist Elana K. Arnold's heartfelt and widely acclaimed series featuring an unforgettable young boy on the autism spectrum. Bixby Alexander Tam (nicknamed "Bat") is...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

Benny on the case
King, Wesley
A boy with Mosaic Down syndrome navigates entering a mainstream classroom, making new friends, and standing up to bullies all while trying to catch a thief and save his home in this thrilling middle grade mystery from New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Wesley King.

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

Vanya and the Wild Hunt
Mandanna, Sangu
Paper Book
*Winner of the Good Housekeeping Kids' Book Awards* *A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year* From the bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches comes an action-packed, enchanting middle grade fantasy about a...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

The bionic boy
Plourde, Lynn
The moving story of a superhero-loving boy born without hands who finds the hero inside himself Benji feels like he's had more than his fair share of good luck-so it's frustrating that his disability tends to make people think the opposite. Adopted from an overseas orphanage when...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

Mixed-up
Garcia, Kami
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia has returned with a middle grade graphic novel about the struggles of a game-loving girl who gets diagnosed with dyslexia and her loving support network that help her along in the journey. Stella knows fifth grade will be...

Children's Graphic Novel (Grades 3-5)

Hazel has her hands full
Fairbairn, Nathan
Paper Book
More heartwarming and humorous adventures await in the fourth book of this graphic novel series that is the Baby-Sitters Club for pets!     Summer break is just around the corner, and the PAWS team is gearing up for a busy season full of dog-walking,...

Children's Graphic Novel (Grades 3-5)

The beat I drum
Bowling, Dusti
Paper Book
"This story was everything I wanted it to be. Heartfelt, thoughtful, and most of all . . . full of hope. I loved it!" --Lindsay Currie, New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Locked Rooms Connor, beloved best friend of Aven Green...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

The girl in the walls
Kuyatt, Meg Eden
Paper Book
There's a ghost in the walls, and V must decide if it is an ally or an enemy. The wrong decision could destroy her and her family. From Schneider Honor Award winning author Meg Eden Kuyatt comes a chilling and insightful novel-in-verse. After a hard school year, V has...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

A glimmer of change
McNicoll, Elle
Thirteen-year-old Keedie Darrow is used to bullies. Growing up neurodivergent makes you an easy target. But when her friends fall victim, Keedie launches an anti-bullying agency--and business is booming. A moving and inclusive prequel to the award-winning novel A Kind of Spark. ...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

The extraordinary orbit of Alex Ramirez
Paulino, Jasminne
A powerful debut novel in verse about a neurodivergent seventh grader who dreams of traveling to the stars one day. A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year "This story is about a boy who is certain of his own magic in the midst of the doubtful adults...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Please pay attention
Sumner, Jamie
Paper Book
Three starred reviews! A girl with cerebral palsy navigates loss, grief, and the aftermath of trauma following a school shooting in a world that wasn't built for her in this "intimate, lyrical" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) novel in verse from Jamie Sumner, the...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Rolling on
Sumner, Jamie
Paper Book
In this "equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming" (Kirkus Reviews) companion to Jamie Sumner's acclaimed and beloved novels Roll with It and Time to Roll, Ellie finds herself faced with first love and learning to let go. It's the very end of eighth grade...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Absolutely everything
Alexander, Damian (Cartoonist)
Lately, life feels like a lot for Marcella. Sixth grade seems complicated on purpose. Marcella keeps forgetting her homework or getting distracted while she's doing it. Plus, her bestie has new friends, and her parents even want to move apartments. She's trying to keep track of the changes...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Fooled
Haas, Susan
In this fresh, funny, and fast-paced story, chaos ensues when a down-on-its-luck middle school comes to believe that fake magic is the real deal! Magic loving, wheelchair user Lil Evers wishes she could start sixth grade at a real...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

At the Speed of Gus
Scrimger, Richard
Paper Book
A smartly funny and sympathetic story about being different and finding your way. Meet the compelling, charismatic 13-year-old Augustus Constantine, a boy whose mind (and mouth) operate at a different speed than the rest of society. Gus has ADHD, and he's on medication to help him focus....

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Very bad at math
Larson, Hope
Paper Book
From New York Times bestselling and Eisner Award-winning author Hope Larson comes a middle grade graphic novel full of hijinks, unexpected friendships, and pizza, perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Kayla Miller. Verity "Very" Nelson can do it all. She's student...

Young Teen Graphic Novel (Grades 5-7)

All you can be with ADHD
Holderness, Penn
An INSTANT New York Times Bestseller and USA TODAY Bestseller! From the New York Times bestselling authors of ADHD Is Awesome comes an empowering and joyful picture book that invites young readers to join the ADHD...

Parenting Book (Age 4-8)


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