Disability Pride: Picture Books

We’ve gathered together picture books that feature young people with disabilities. Many are memoirs or fiction that draw upon the authors’ own experiences. We hope you find books here to share with your family that can serve as mirrors for children with disabilities and doorways to deepen understanding and empathy for all.

Updated July 12, 2025
L
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Happy Valley Library
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Families
Shrivastav, Archaa
Paper Book
2021 Stonewall Award Winner - the first ever board book to win an American Library Association medal! Beautiful photos of real LGBTQ and ally families showcase all the wonderful forms of family, gender, and sexuality while poetic text builds both vocabulary and empathy. FAMILIES helps families and...
Different : a great thing to be!
Avis, Heather
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . This joyful rhyming book encourages children to value the "different" in all people, leading the way to a kinder world in which the differences in all of us are celebrated and embraced. Macy is a girl who's a lot like you and me, but she's also...
Song in the city
Bernstrom, Daniel
Paper Book
From Daniel Bernstrom, the acclaimed author of One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree, comes a charming and irresistibly fun picture book about a young blind girl and her grandmother who experience the vibrant everyday music of their busy city. A young girl, filled with...
Six dots : a story of young Louis Braille
Bryant, Jennifer.
Paper Book
An inspiring picture-book biography of Louis Braille-a blind boy so determined to read that he invented his own alphabet. **Winner of a Schneider Family Book Award!** Louis Braille was just five years old when he lost his sight. He was a clever boy, determined...
You're so amazing!
Catchpole, James
Paper Book
A Schneider Family Book Award Honor book! ​In this authentic and humorous picture book, a child with a limb difference is tired of being told how amazing he is for doing normal things. Joe and his friend Simone are practicing their best playground...
We want to go to school! : the fight for disability rights
Cocca-Leffler, Maryann
Paper Book
A Junior Library Guild Selection February 2022 The true story of the people who helped make every public school a more inclusive place. There was a time in the United States when millions of children with disabilities weren't allowed to go to...
How we eat
Fuente-Lau, Shuli de la
Paper Book
"★ Meaningful and inclusive." - Kirkus Starred Review Mealtime just got a whole lot more fun! HOW WE EAT helps families and educators discuss ability, culture, and food at home and in the classroom. Complete with family discussion questions and a guide detailing the...
Hello goodbye dog
Gianferrari, Maria
Paper Book
For Zara's dog, Moose, nothing is more important than being with his favorite girl. So when Zara has to go to school in her wheelchair, WHOOSH, Moose escapes and rushes to her side. Hello, Moose! Unfortunately, dogs aren't allowed at school and Moose has to go...
Monster hands
Kane, Karen
Paper Book
A Schneider Family Book Award Honor Two best friends use rhyming ASL to help vanquish their fear of the monster under the bed in this fun, interactive bedtime readaloud. When nighttime comes, Milo has a problem--he's convinced there's a monster under his bed! Luckily...
My city speaks
Lebeuf, Darren
Paper Book
A young visually impaired girl and her father spend a day in the city, her city, travelling to the places they go together: the playground, the community garden, the market, an outdoor concert. As they do, the girl describes what she senses in delightfully precise, poetic detail. Her city, she says,...
Happy again
Plohl, Igor
Paper Book
Lucas fell, and now he lives with a disability. A Level G story about resilience that first graders can read on their own. Lucas is a happy lion. One day Lucas Falls. Can Lucas be happy again? When Lucas falls off a ladder, he hurts...
Dancing hands : a story of friendship in Filipino sign language
Que, Joanna
Paper Book
A sky-blue bench
Rahman, Bahram
Paper Book
It's Afghan schoolgirl Aria's first day back at school since her accident. She's excited, but she's also worried about sitting on the hard floor all day with her new prosthetic "helper-leg." Just as Aria feared, sitting on the floor is so uncomfortable that she can't think about learning...
I talk like a river
Scott, Jordan
Paper Book
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner What if words got stuck in the back of your mouth whenever you tried to speak? What if they never came out the way you wanted them to? Sometimes it takes a change of perspective to get...
This is how we play : a celebration of disability and adaptation
Slice, Jessica
Paper Book
A jubilant, inclusive, luminously illustrated picture book that features families at play, each with a family member who has a disability. With love and adaptation, this is how we play! This joyful read-aloud with an empowering refrain, from disability rights activists...
Just ask! : be different, be brave, be you
Sotomayor, Sonia
Paper Book
Ali and the sea stars
Stroker, Ali
Paper Book
Tony Award-winning actress Ali Stroker captures the magic and community of theater in her debut picture book, about a spirited girl in a wheelchair who stages a show for her hometown. Based on the pivotal summer Ali performed in her first musical by the Jersey Shore! Ali...
A walk in the words
Talbott, Hudson
Paper Book
Winner of a Schneider Family Honor! "A beautifully rendered and deeply inspiring book for everyone who has ever read slowly-myself included! Hudson shows us the beauty and magic that can come from taking our time. Brilliant."-Jacqueline Woodson Hudson Talbott's...

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