All students deserve to be seen and heard, and this includes representation in books! Having a variety of picture books in your classroom library helps to ensure all of your students feel welcomed and important. Whether it’s books with different races or cultures, different family structures of religions, and even books with children with disabilities – being intentional about book selection is key! Check out my favorite disability awareness picture books below!
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Disability Awareness Picture Book #1:
My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay is a fun and quick read about three best friends who help each other through everything. They all love to sing and dance. They help each other in school with math, reading, and even art. But there’s a special event coming up that someone feels nervous about – Field Day. You see, Zulay is blind. She gets up the courage to volunteer to run the relay race (in her new pink shoes of course). After lots of practice and help from her new cane and her teacher, Zulay runs and finishes the race!
I chose this book because there are not very many picture books about the disability of blindness. This book shows that with determination, no matter the disability, students can do what they put their minds to. I think all students can relate to the characters in this text. I highly recommend it as an addition to your classroom library!
Picture Book #2:
Rescue & Jessica… When I first saw this book, I cried. Just recently (2022), my dog Allen passed away at the age of 14. He was a
service dog just like Rescue in the book. Although, he didn’t work with just one handler. He worked at my school! He came to work with me every day to give emotional support to students all throughout the school. He was loved by so many kids. So when I found this book, I just knew I had to have it.
Rescue, the dog in the book, is growing up to be a seeing-eye dog! But he gets news that he might be better off being a service dog instead. He isn’t sure about this news and doesn’t know if he is up to the task. But then he meets someone special, Jessica. Rescue and Jessica both have something in common – both of their lives haven’t turned out the way they were expecting them to. Now Rescue feels he has a purpose.
Disability Awareness Picture Book #3:
Just Because is an adorable story of a brother and sister relationship. My big sister Clemmie is my best friend. She can’t walk, talk, move around much, cook macaroni, pilot a plane, juggle, or do algebra. I don’t know why she doesn’t do these things. Just because.’ This heartwarming picture book is about being perfectly loved, no matter what tells of a brother’s love for his sister. He is so enthusiastic about just how loving and special she is, and delights in telling us about all the fun things they do together.Need more picture book ideas? Here are my favorite Figurative Language Picture Books!
Picture Book #4:
take off his shoes. You see, Moses is deaf. He goes to school with other students who are deaf. And their class is about to go somewhere special!Disability Awareness Picture Book #5:
Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful.
In Just Ask, we celebrate the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. The story shows children with all sorts of challenges–and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same: When we come across someone who is different from us but we’re not sure why all we have to do is Just Ask.
Picture Book #6:
preserve. In the story, you find that Alan has a stutter and struggles to talk to people. He is put in a special class for students who disrupt, even though he can’t help it. But soon, he learns that he can talk without stuttering – when talking to animals!
I hope you found some new disability awareness picture books to add to your collection! Want to save this post for later? Pin the image below!
