Like many other things, kindness is a quality that children learn over time and through practice.
Fortunately, for us parents, there are many books available in the market that can help inculcate kindness and compassion in our kids from the early years. If you start children at an early age- being introduced to a variety of races, creeds, cultures, and disabilities, they will learn to embrace children for the curious beings that they are and not see anything else.
Below are some children’s books about disabilities that are wonderful to begin conversations about differences ,disabilities and inclusivity!
1.This Beach is Loud by Samantha Cotterill
This book should be read to all children to make them aware sensory processing difficulties some kids experience. The book is written for children on the Autism spectrum mainly . For them sensory overload can be overwhelming.
Going to the beach is exciting. But it can also be busy. And loud. Sand can feel hot or itchy or sticky…and it gets everywhere!
In This Beach Is Loud!, a sensitive boy gets overwhelmed by all the sights, sounds, and sensations at the beach. Luckily, this kiddo’s dad has a trick up his sleeve to help his son face these unexpected obstacles.
This book does an excellent job of portraying this feeling, and the tension is resolved joyfully at the end. This book also shows the use of calming activities like breathing and counting.
2. What If We Were All The Same! by C M Harris
What If We Were All The Same! embraces all of our beautiful differences. Aimed to help children understand there are many great reasons for being friends with those who are different than they are. Whether they have red hair or brown hair, green eyes or blue eyes, long legs or short legs, light skin or dark skin, glasses, uses a wheelchair, or anything else, it’s absolutely OKAY! Our differences are what makes us unique and if we truly think about it, would you want to be the exact same as someone else?
What If We Were All The Same! is fun-filled with rhymes and colorful illustrations, brings attention to tough topics children can relate to.
- Great book for parents; conversation starter to discuss prejudices and racism to kids
- Great book for librarians and teachers; school introduction or back-to-school reading
- Great book to discuss friendship, acceptance, empathy, bullying, and more
- Great multicultural representation of diversity, inclusion, and acceptance
3.Know Me for My Ability Not My Disability by Kevin Valido
One summer, best friends, Jack and George, decided to go to summer camp together. Little did they know that their parents would send them to a camp built on the idea of having an inclusive environment for all people. Their plans of spending time together take a turn when they are placed in separate groups.
On their adventure, however, they encounter new friends with a wide range of different abilities. Through the eyes of the children in the camp with special needs such as spina bifida, Down syndrome, and autism, Jack and George get to see how our differences are not what define us. Rather, the boys learn a valuable lesson. They realize that it’s important to know each other’s abilities and not focus on our disabilities.
Jack and George learn through their new friends that our differences truly are what make each and every one of us beautifully unique.
4.The Same but Different by Molly Potter
The Same but Different explores the ways in which we’re all unique as well as the similarities we all share. Using everyday examples, clear explanations and colourful illustrations by Sarah Jennings, this book prompts children to broaden their perspectives and rejoice in their differences. After all, imagine how boring the world would be if everyone was exactly the same!
This book covers lots of ways in which we’re different, including how we look, where we live, the languages we speak, what our families are like and what we believe in. It’s the perfect resource for starting important conversations with children about diversity and inclusion, with topics such as race, disability, gender, sexual orientation and religion. Early Years and PSHE expert Molly Potter also provides a glossary of terms and notes for parents and careers offering advice on tackling prejudice right from the start.
5. It’s OK to be Different: A Children’s Picture Book About Diversity and Kindness by Sharon Purtill
It’s OK to be Different written by Sharon Purtill and illustrated by Sujata Saha presents individuality. Everything about it is inspiring. Children will enjoy the fun and clever rhymes, as they are drawn in by the bright and cheerful illustrations. It is one of those books that both children and adults can enjoy, as it delivers the perfect message to young readers.
This story has effectively imparted an ever important lesson that individuality should be celebrated and not shunned. It encourages kids to accept and befriend those who are different from themselves. Showing young children that they don’t have to look alike or enjoy doing the same activities to be kind to one another.
When the author wrote this children’s book, she did so with one idea in mind. If we can instill positive messages, from a young age, about all the diversity our children will see in the world, we can help raise up compassionate and caring children. When children are raised to accept and embrace those who are different from themselves they are far more likely to be a friend than an adversary with their peers. This can lead to less bullying among children. And that is a beautiful thing.
6. Who Do you See When you Look at Me? by Angela Ray Rogers
Who do you see when you look at me? Most notice my wheelchair, my voice, or my crazy hair. I am me, just me, doing my best to live each day to the fullest I can. There is more to me than you might realise. I have gifts and talents that make me unique.
There are also things I do just like you– things we have in common that you might not even know. When we take the time to learn about each other, something grand happens– love and understanding. Open your mind, your soul, your heart, and you will see the real me… when you look at me.
This is must reading for children.
7.All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel
This is the story of a little girl who just wanted to go, even when others tried to stop her.
Jennifer Keelan was determined to make a change—even if she was just a kid. She never thought her wheelchair could slow her down, but the way the world around her was built made it hard to do even simple things. Like going to school, or eating lunch in the cafeteria.
Jennifer knew that everyone deserves a voice! Then the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law that would make public spaces much more accessible to people with disabilities, was proposed to Congress. And to make sure it passed, Jennifer went to the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC to convince them.
And, without her wheelchair, she climbed.
ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!
8.Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant
Louis Braille was just five years old when he lost his sight. He was a clever boy, determined to live like everyone else, and what he wanted more than anything was to be able to read.
Even at the school for the blind in Paris, there were no books for him.
And so he invented his own alphabet—a whole new system for writing that could be read by touch. A system so ingenious that it is still used by the blind community today.
This book tells a true and inspiring story of the struggle to develop a reading language for the blind. Shows spirit & optimism in the face of tough obstacles. His determination made him successful but not on the first try. A lesson for old and young.
9.D is for Down Syndrome by Ikos Ronzkie
This book uses a simple ABC format to teach about Down syndrome. With delightful illustrations, this book teaches, from a child’s perspective, the typical traits that many people with Down syndrome share.
Encourage discussions of how you or people you love might be like the child in this book. You might compare and contrast how the child in this book is similar or different from a person you know with Down syndrome.
This book provides wonderful opportunities to discuss how to be a friend of a child with Down syndrome. The simple action plan at the conclusion of the book will help give guidance to a child who wants to be a friend of someone with Down syndrome.
I believe knowledge helps break down barriers and encourages kindness and patience. Helping children understand Down syndrome and genetic differences at a young age is powerful. Reading this book will change the life of your child and the lives of people with genetic differences that your child meets now and in the future.
10.Roll with It by Jamie Sumner
Ellie’s a girl who tells it like it is. That surprises some people, who see a kid in a wheelchair and think she’s going to be all sunshine and cuddles. The thing is, Ellie has big dreams: She might be eating Stouffer’s for dinner, but one day she’s going to be a professional baker. If she’s not writing fan letters to her favorite celebrity chefs, she’s practicing recipes on her well-meaning, if overworked, mother.
But when Ellie and her mom move so they can help take care of her ailing grandpa, Ellie has to start all over again in a new town at a new school. Except she’s not just the new kid—she’s the new kid in the wheelchair who lives in the trailer park on the wrong side of town. It all feels like one challenge too many, until Ellie starts to make her first-ever friends. Now she just has to convince her mom that this town might just be the best thing that ever happened to them!
