DisABILITIES in Fiction: A Book List  for Teens

Bloor, Edward – Tangerine (Blindness) 1997
Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness.

Caletti, Deb - Wild Roses (Mental Illness) 2005
17-year old Cassie learns about the good and bad sides of both love and genius while living with her mother and brilliant, yet disturbed, violinist stepfather.

Chester, Kate – Hear No Evil series (Deafness) 1996+
A mystery series featuring Sara Howell, who is smart, savvy, beautiful and…deaf.

Clements, Andrew – Things Not Seen (Blindness) 2002
When Bobby wakes up one morning and finds himself invisible, he turns to his parents and his friend, Alicia, who has a visual disability, to find out what happened.

Choldenko, Gennifer – Al Capone Does My Shirts (Autism) 2004
12-year-old Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards’ families were housed there.  Besides adjusting to the extraordinary new environment, Moose must also contend with his sister who has autism.

Coburn, Jake – Lovesick (Bulimia) 2005
After an accident seems to put an end to his college and athletic dreams, Ted is offered a second chance at school if he agrees to spy on a classmate and help her father monitor her bulimia.

Dear America – Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: the Diary of Bess Brennan  (Blindness) 2002
In 1932, a twelve-year-old girl who lost her sight in an accident keeps a diary, recorded by her twin sister, in which she describes life at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts.         

Ferris, Jean – Of Sound Mind (Deafness) 2001
Tired of interpreting for his deaf family and resentful of their reliance on him, high school senior Theo finds support and understanding from Ivy, a new student who also has a deaf parent.
 
Fleischman, Paul – Mind’s Eye (Physically Disabled) 1999
A novel in play form in which sixteen-year-old Courtney, paralyzed in an accident, learns about the power of the mind from an elderly blind woman who takes Courtney on an imaginary journey to Italy.

Flinn, Alex – Fade to Black (Down Syndrome) 2005
After a student with HIV is violently attacked, there is a witness, a suspect and a victim-but what really happened?

Frank, Lucy – I am an Artichoke (Anorexia Nervosa) 1995
Working as a mother's helper in New York City, fifteen-year-old Sarah finds herself caught in the middle of a troubled relationship between an eccentric writer and her anorexic daughter.

Friend, Natasha – Perfect (Bulimia) 2004
Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.

Gantos, Jack – Joey Pigza series (ADHD) 1998+
The life and times of Joey Pigza as he learns to live with ADHD.

Harrar, George – Not as Crazy as I Seem (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) 2003
As fifteen-year-old Devon begins mid-year at a new prestigious prep school, he is plagued by compulsions such as the need to sort things into groups of four.

Hautman, Pete – Invisible (Mental Illness) 2005
Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends—one is obsessed with his model trains, the other a popular student involved with football and theater—who grow up together and share a bond that nothing can sever.

Heisel, Sharon – Eyes of a Stranger (Physically Disabled) 1996
Marissa, a shy self-conscious girl with a twisted leg, is attracted to a strikingly handsome visitor to her uncle's carousel but begins to suspect that he is a psychotic serial killer.

Hesser, Terry – Kissing Doorknobs (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) 1998
14-year-old Tara describes how her increasingly strange compulsions begin to take over her life and affect her relationships with her family and friends.

Ingold, Jeanette – The Window (Blindness) 1996
When she comes to live with relatives on a Texas farm, fifteen-year-old Mandy encounters the grandmother she never knew and begins to come to terms with her blindness caused by the automobile accident that killed her mother.

Janover, Caroline – The Worst Speller in Jr. High (Dyslexia) 1995
Starting out in the seventh grade, Katie Kelso finds herself trying to cope with her dyslexia and form a friendship with a very bright boy at school, while she and her family deal with her mother's cancer diagnosis.

Jordan, Sherryl – Raging Quiet (Physically Disabled) 1999
Suspicious of sixteen-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.

Kim: Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager (Anorexia Nervosa) 2002
Seventeen-year-old Kim, feeling the pressure of maintaining an A average to stay on her college gymnastics team, becomes obsessive about her weight and develops anorexia.

Koertge, Ronald – Stoner & Spaz (Cerebral Palsy) 2002
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-addicted young woman.

Lowry, Lois – Silent Boy (Mentally Disabled) 2003
Katy, the precocious 10-year-old daughter of the town doctor, befriends a boy with mental disabilities.

Martin, Ann – The Corner of the Universe (Mentally Disabled) 2002
The summer that Hattie turns 12, she meets the childlike uncle she never knew and becomes friends with a girl who works at the carnival that comes to town.

Martin, Rafe -  Birdwing (Physically Disabled) 2005
Prince Ardwin, turned into a swan by his stepmother, is unable to transform back to human form, so he takes a journey to discover whether his feathered arm will be a curse or a blessing.

McCord, Patricia – Pictures in the Dark (Mental Illness) 2004
Life with their mentally ill mother becomes unbearable for 12 year old Sarah and 15-year-old Carlie as they are deprived of food and forbidden to use the bathroom.

McCormick, Patricia – Cut (Mental Illness) 2000
While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.

Metzger, Lois – Barry’s Sister (Cerebral Palsy) 1992
Twelve-year-old Ellen's loathing for her new baby brother Barry, who has cerebral palsy, gradually changes to a fierce, obsessive love.

Na, An – Wait for Me (Hearing Impaired) 2006
Mina tries to find her own path in life while working at the family business, taking care of her hearing impaired sister and dealing with her mother’s impossible expectations of her.

Newman, Leslea – Fat Chance (Bulimia) 1994
In a series of diary entries, thirteen-year-old Judi recounts her struggles to lose weight, hide her bulimia from her mother, find a boyfriend, and decide on a profession.

Peers, Jessica – Asparagus Dreams (Autism) 2003
Expelled from mainstream education and vaguely aware she has something called 'Asparagus' Syndrome, 12-year-old Jessica is sent away to a residential school for young people with autism.

Philbrick, W.R. – Freak the Mighty (Mentally Disabled, Birth Defects) 1993
Max, who has a learning disability, and his new friend Freak, find that when they combine forces, they make a powerful team.

Plum-Ucci, Carol - What happened to Lani Garver (Eating Disorder) 2002
Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of her leukemia, her eating disorder, her need to fit in with the popular crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother's alcoholism until the enigmatic Lani Garver helps her get control of her life at the risk of his own.

Porter, Pamela – The Crazy Man (Physically Disabled)) 2006
This lovely and lyrical work is told from the point-of-view of Emaline Bitterman, a twelve-year-old girl, struggling to recover after a freak farm accident leaves her partially crippled and fatherless.

Rinaldi, Ann – Or Give Me Death (Mental Illness) 2003
With their father away most of the time, Patrick Henry’s children must manage the family plantation and care for their mentally ill mother by themselves.

Rubin, Susan Goldman – Emily Good as Gold (Mentally Disabled) 1993
Emily Gold, a learning disabled thirteen-year-old, struggles to be independent from her overprotective parents.

Rubin, Susan Goldman -  Emily in Love (Mentally Disabled) 1997
A developmentally-disabled fourteen-year-old faces the challenges of her classes at a "regular" high school, a new job, and a budding romance.

Sachar, Louis – Small Steps (Cerebral Palsy) 2006
Three years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is trying hard to keep his life on track, but when X-Ray shows up with a tempting plan to make easy money, Armpit reluctantly goes along.  Sequel to Holes.

Scrimger, Richard – From Charlie’s Point of View (Blindness) 2005
Best friends Bernadette and Charlie begin 7th grade by unraveling the case of the stocking bandit.

Shaw, Susan – Black-Eyed Suzie (Mental Illness) 2002
Suzie’s stay in a mental hospital helps her tear down the walls of a devastating psychological prison she calls “the box”.

Sherlock, Patti – Letters from Wolfie (Work Dogs) 2004
After donating his dog Wolfie to the Army’s scout program in Vietnam, Mark begins to have doubts when the Army refuses to say when or if Wolfie will return.

Skurzynski, Gloria – Spider’s Voice (Mutism) 1999
 Because he is a young mute person who can hear, Aran becomes involved in the adventures of Eloise and Abelard, France's most famous lovers, who lived during the twelfth century.

Sones, Sonya – Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Sister Went Crazy (Mental Illness) 1999
A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental breakdown.

Stahler, David – Truesight (Blindness) 2004
In a distant world, Jacob is uncertain of his future in a community that considers blindness a virtue and sight as abnormal.

Trueman, Terry – Cruise Control (Cerebral Palsy) 2004
A talented basketball player struggles to deal with the helplessness and anger that comes with a brother with severe cerebral palsy and a father that deserted the family.

Trueman, Terry- Stuck in Neutral (Cerebral Palsy) 2000
14-year-old Shawn, who has severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, believes that his father is planning to kill him.

Vrettos, Adrienne – Skin (Anorexia Nervosa) 2006
When his parents separate, eighth-grader Donnie watches with horror as his sister, Karen, deteriorates due to anorexia.

 Weeks, Sarah -  So B. It (Mental Illness) 2004
After spending her life with her mother who is mentally ill and her neighbor who is agoraphobic, 12-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno to New York to find out who she is.

White, Ruth – Memories of Summer (Mental Illness) 2000
In 1955, thirteen-year-old Lyric finds her whole life changing when her family moves from the hills of Virginia to a town in Michigan and her older sister Summer begins descending into mental illness.

Wilson, Jacqueline – Girls Under Pressure (Anorexia Nervosa) 2002
Ellie learns to deal with her self-image as she battles anorexia.