Children’s books by disabled authors | A big list for Disability History Month (2024)

Our list on UK Bookshop

Our list on US Bookshop

Best Day Ever! – illustrated by wheelchair user Leah Nixon. Age 2+

The one book on our list NOT written by a disabled author – included because illustrator Leah Nixon is a wheelchair user. And while Marilyn Singer’s text is expertly written, the only indication of disability comes in the illustrations – as a child in a manual wheelchair takes his dog for a walk. Our daughter’s favourite book when small, it perfectly captures the highs and lows of young children’s emotional landscape – in which it’s either the best or the worst day ever. (Clarion Books 2021)

Disability rep: the main character – a child – uses a manual wheelchair.

Mama Car – a picture book by Lucy Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George. Age 2+

A young picture book, which introduces a mother’s wheelchair as just one of the family’s vehicles – part of a lovely, cosy life. It’s by me – I’m admittedly biased. (I’m uncomfortable putting it near the top, but there are few picture books by disabled authors for the youngest children.) Find more about it here on this blog. (Faber 2024)

Disability rep – two disabled parents, mother uses a manual wheelchair (and transfer board), father has one leg and uses crutches.

This Beach is Loud! – a picture book, by Samantha Cotterill. Age 3+

An exuberant, talkative boy visits the beach with his father. This book by autistic author-illustrator Samantha Cotterill does not explain autism to a non-disabled reader – autism isn’t named in this warm-hearted, funny story. The story is through the boy’s eyes – his excitement, the sensory overload of the beach.Read our full review. Others in the same series also recommended. (Trigger Publishing 2020)

Disability representation: sensory overload – autism is mentioned in a note by a clinical psychologist at the start.

Can Bears Ski? – a picture book by Raymond Antrobus, illustrated by Polly Dunbar. For age 3+

A child-bear discovers their deafness, visiting an audiologist with their father. It turns out it’s not “can bears ski?” people keep asking, but ‘can you hear me?’ An insider’s story of deafness for young children, by a deaf poet and hard of hearing illustrator. We represent illustrator Polly Dunbar, you can read our full review here. (Walker 2021)

Disability rep: a deaf child uses a hearing aid & visits an audiologist. Characters don’t sign, but the UK paperback includes a BSL alphabet at the back.

What Happened to You? – a picture book by James Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George. Age 3+

Another book we’re biased on – one of us wrote it. Joe just wants to play, but the children in the playground keep asking him questions about his leg. Finally, they stop asking and join in his game. We’ve written lots about it here on this blog. (And here’s a page with more books by us.) (Faber 2021)

Disability rep: a boy with one leg, no prosthetic.

The Moonlight Zoo – incidental deaf rep by Maudie Powell-Tuck, illustrated by Karl James Mountford. Age 3+

A beautiful, sumptuously illustrated picture book with a main character who wears a hearing aid. Eva can’t find her missing cat, Luna. But she finds a magical night-time world full of lost animals, where she has to track Luna down before morning comes and the moonlight zoo disappears. Eva’s deafness is not mentioned – her hearing aid is just there. Valuable incidental representation for deaf children. (Little Tiger 2020)

Disability representation: main character – a small girl – wears a hearing aid.

Come Over to My House – by Eliza Hull & Sally Rippin, illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett. Age 3+

The simple text takes the reader from house to house, where each house and family is individual and unique. Unusually – given how rarely disabled parents are represented – disabled parents outnumber disabled children. Includes a child who’s an ambulatory wheelchair user, always valuable. By Australian Eliza Hull. (Hardie Grant 2021)

Disability rep: wheelchair user, autism (parent & child), Deaf ASL user (mother), blind (mother), achondroplasia (dad & child), intellectual disability (parent), amputee(parent).

Terrible Horses – a picture book by Raymond Antrobus, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max. Age 4+

“My sister is cooler than me. I want her friends to be my friends. I want her things to be my things.” In this story about sibling friction and rivalry, the main character – a boy with a hearing aid – retreats to his bedroom to write stories.By poet Raymond Antrobus (also author of Can Bears Ski?). (Walker 2023)

Disability rep: main character, a child, uses a hearing aid.

You’re So Amazing! – a picture book by James & Lucy Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George. Age 4+

A book by us. This story is pitched a bit older than What Happened to You? – Joe is tired of people telling him he’s “amazing”, especially when he’s just eating an ice cream. This book encourages readers to think about their own responses to disabled people. You can find more we’ve written about it here on this blog. (Faber 2023)

Disability rep: a boy with one leg – no prosthetic – using crutches.

A Kids Book About Disability – non-fiction by Kristine Napper. Age 5+

This picture-less book describes itself as “a clear explanation of what disabilities are and how to navigate conversations about them”. To my surprise on first reading, given the uber stylish typeface and sparse design, the voice is full of warmth and individuality. Written by US teacher and wheelchair user Kristine Napper. Our full review. (DK 2023)

Disability rep: adult narrator has SMA and uses a powerchair.

We Are the Scrappy Ones – a picture book by Rebekah Taussig, illustrated by Kirbi Fagan. Age 5+

“We are the scrappy ones. We live, we adapt, we defy. Made of stardust and grit, we are spectacular.” At the core of this picture book is an insightful, heartfelt poem by Rebekah Taussig, author of Sitting Pretty, about growing up disabled. Described by the publisher as “a ground-breaking anthem of belonging that celebrates the wide range of disabled children and affirms their worth, just as they are”. (Carolrhoda 2025)

Disability rep: a range of disabilities, author is a wheelchair user.

I Am Not a Label – illustrated non-fiction by Cerrie Burnell, illustrated by Lauren Baldo. Age 6+

34 artists, thinkers, athletes and activists with disabilities, from past and present. This stylish illustrated book presents short biographies of notable disabled people. Author and former CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell chose individuals from the obvious: Stevie Wonder, Frida Kahlo, Beethoven, to the less well-known, like Nabil Shaban – Sil in Doctor Who – and a few we might not think of as disabled at all, like Lady Gaga. Read our full review. (Quarto 2020)

Disability rep includes: blindness, autism, wheelchair users, amputees, deafness, dwarfism etc.

We Move Together – a picture book by Kelly Fritsch & Anne McGuire, illustrated by Eduardo Trejos. Age 6+

A group of children – disabled and non-disabled – negotiate barriers and take part in protests in this celebration of disability joy, culture and community. I particularly enjoyed the nod to the great plastic straw debate, which divides non-disabled and disabled people whenever it comes up on social media. (AK Press 2021)

Disability rep: a wide spectrum, including children & adults using mobility-aids.

I Am, You Are – illustrated non-fiction by Ashley Harris-Whaley, illustrated by Ananya Rao-Middleton. Age 6+

Let’s talk about disability, individuality and empowerment. Author Ashley Harris-Whaley – creator of Instagram account @disabilityreframed – brings us an age-appropriate introduction to disability. This book answers many questions teachers want answering – eg: what is disability? Suitable for school-age children. (Ladybird 2023)

Disability rep: a range of disabilities – including wheelchair and other mobility aid users, deafness, blindness, autism, limb differences.

El Deafo – a graphic novel for children by Cece Bell, 8+

An autobiographical coming of age graphic novel by deaf author and illustrator Cece Bell. This is a hugely enjoyable read for children and adults, our 10yo (with no real-life experience of deafness) has chosen to re-read it numerous times. Hearing readers will wince at the mistakes made by hearing characters, and quietly vow not to repeat them. A Newbery Award Honor Book, and now a TV series, this is amongst the very best disability representation in children’s books. Our full review of El Deafo. (Amulet 2014)

Disability rep: main character becomes deaf & uses hearing aids. Content note: 1960s setting – tech is outdated. No Deaf culture – Cece does not want to learn sign language. Use of ‘Deafo’.

The Chance to Fly – novel by Ali Stroker & Stacy Davidowitz – 8+

A middle-grade novel about a musical-obsessed teenager, by Broadway actor and singer Ali Stroker (also the voice on many audiobook versions of books on this list). This book has big “let’s put on a show! right here in this barn!” energy in the best Judy Garland tradition, as 13yo Nat – a wheelchair user like the author – and her friends mount a production of Wicked. There are finely observed details about access compromises, and the way those compromises affect her relationship with her parents,. Co-written with Stacy Davidowitz. (Amulet 2021) There’s now a sequel – Cut Loose!

Disability rep: main character has a spinal injury and uses a manual wheelchair.

Cosima Unfortunate Steals A Star – novel by Laura Noakes, 8+

In this historical adventure set in Victorian London, 12 year old Cosima grows up in the Home for Unfortunate Girls. Found family and disability solidarity is a theme of this list. Cos finds community with wheelchair user Diya, and Pearl, who’s likely autistic. It’s refreshing to find a child-heroine with chronic pain and fatigue: “My disability is a bit like a zigzag. Sometimes I walk fine. A lot of the time, when I’m in pain, I have a walking stick. And at other times I use a wheelchair”. Laura Noakes shares her heroine’s disability. Sequel is Cosima Unfortunate Foils a Fraud out now. (Harper Collins 2023)

Disability rep: main character has hypermobility, chronic pain. Other characters: wheelchair user, (presumed) autism, anxiety. Content note: set in 1899, so views of disability are outdated, including the institutionalisation of disabled people.

Owning It – non-fiction anthology. Edited by James & Lucy Catchpole, Jen Campbell. Illustrator Sophie Kamlish. Age 9+

Tales from our disabled childhoods. Out in spring 2025, 22 disabled writers tell true stories from their own disabled childhoods – including Jessica Kellgren-Fozard in her book debut, and Imani Barbarin. It’s edited by us, with Jen Campbell. In our editors’ note, we describe it as ‘the book we wish we’d had when we were young’. Read our post about it (Faber 2025)

Contributors: Ali Abbas, Polly Atkin, Imani Barbarin, Christa Couture, Carly Findlay, M. Leona Godin, Eugene Grant, Jan Grue, Matilda Feyisayo Ibini, Ilya Kaminsky, Sora J Kasuga, Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, Elle McNicoll, Daniel Sluman, Nina Tame, Rebekah Taussig, Steven Verdile, Alex Wegman, Ashley Harris Whaley, Kendra Winchester.

Disability rep: wheelchair users, scoliosis, facial disfigurement, amputees, CP, chronic illness, EDS, blindness, d/Deaf, ichthyosis, dwarfism, chronic pain.

A Kind of Spark – a novel for young people by Elle McNichol, 9+

Scottish author Ellie McNichol dedicated this book to her autistic readers and ‘all children with happy, flapping hands’. Eleven year old Addie becomes fascinated by her town’s history of witch trials, noticing that the women killed were, like her, seen as different. (Knights Of, 2020) There’s now a prequel called Keedie, starring Addie’s sister – who’s also autistic. A Kind of Spark is now a popular BBC television series.

Disability rep: autism. Content note: realistic, unfair treatment of an autistic child by a teacher. Reference to an older autistic character being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

How to be Disabled and Proud (or at least kinda sorta okay with it…) – non-fiction by Cathy Reay, age 9+

“Have you ever felt like you don’t fit in anywhere? Or like no-one understands what it feels like to be you? Maybe you feel like you’re the only person in the world who looks, moves or thinks like you do. Well, I’m here to tell you that you are not alone, and you belong in the world exactly as you are.” Cathy Reay, British journalist and mother, interviews Ellie Simmonds, Jameisha Prescod, Dr Shani Dhanda, Nina Tame etc in this middle-grade non-fiction book, out in spring 2025 with Puffin.

Disability rep: author has dwarfism, interviewees have a range of disabilities, including dwarfism, chronic illness, blindness, wheelchair user & autism.

The Secret of Haven Point – a novel by Lisette Auton, 9+

“You see, everyone who finds this place and becomes a Wreckling is disabled. If you’re not, you’re an Outsider, and no Outsider has ever made it past the Boundaries.” Lisette Auton channels disability solidarity into deeply imaginative fantasy – mermaids with razor-sharp teeth, ships-in-bottles that transform to full-sized ships, and a community of disabled young people growing up in a lighthouse. Lisette’s now written two further books with disability rep – The Stickleback Catchers, and Lights Up. (Puffin, 2022)

Disability rep: main character with facial disfigurement. Other characters include: blind, Deaf BSL users, wheelchair user, amputee, dwarfism etc. Content note: includes a battle, with violence, guns & death.

Frankie’s World – a graphic novel by Aoife Dooley, 9+

This graphic novel from autistic Irish comedian and author-illustrator Aoife Dooley is one of those books our daughter (age 9) practically inhaled – finishing it in a happy blur that same day. Frankie feels different from everyone else at school, but isn’t sure why. She finds an outlet doodling her daily adventures in her journal. When she finds a hidden copy of her birth certificate, she decides to track down her birth father, in the hope he holds the answers… Winner of The Week Junior Book Awards’ Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year 2023. (Scholastic 2022)

Disability rep: autism.

Wilder than Midnight – a novel by Cerrie Burnell, 9+

This magical novel by CBeebies’s Cerrie Burnell is set in a fairy tale world, where heroines like Red Riding Hood and Snow White are reimagined – as stories and legends that arose from half-truths. Wild Rose, born with an arm that ends just below the elbow, is in danger of being labelled a witch. Abandoned as a baby, her adopted family protect her by spinning a new tale around her – of a girl in a red cloak who charms wolves, her congenital disability rejigged into a war-wound. (Has acquired disability always carried less stigma? Perhaps.) Another book on this list celebrating found family.(Puffin 2022) There’s now a sequel – Swifter than Starlight.

Disability rep: congenital limb difference, arm. Content note: mother rejects her disabled baby.

The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers – Jen Campbell, 10+

In this book of dark fairy tales, Jen Campbell includes a few disabled characters. In the last story – The Woman and the Glass Mountain – a princess with alopecia falls in love with a woman who reads her stories. And in another, when a princess’s fingers are chopped off by her vengeful father, she’s transformed into a mermaid, her severed fingers becoming fish. Both stories relate to Campbell’s own disability, as she explains in the afterword. (She also discusses the history of fairytales & disability on YouTube.)

Disability rep: princess with alopecia. Deaf rep in the second story. Content note: stories are dark (as the title suggests), and include death and dismemberment.

Rolling Warrior – a memoir by Judith Heumann, 10+

The incredible, sometimes awkward, true story of a rebel girl on wheels who helped spark a revolution – this is not hyperbole. Judy Heumann, who died recently, was a grande dame of US disability activism – a force behind major legal and political change for American disabled people. Rolling Warrior is a compelling adaptation of her adult memoir (our review here), deftly co-written with Kristen Joiner. From the unabashed discrimination of her 1950s childhood, to the longest sit-in of a US government building – with 100+ other disabled people – this is a remarkable story. (Beacon 2021)

Disability rep: polio – wheelchair user. Many characters with other disabilities, including MS & intellectual disability. Content note: Prologue describes Nazi eugenics, US institutional abuse of disabled people. Starts in the 1950s, so includes heavy ableism & discrimination throughout.

Where You See Yourself – YA novel by Claire Forrest, 12+

In this coming of age novel, teenage wheelchair user Effie navigates friendship, romance, ableism, and university plans in her last year at her US high school. There’s prom, and gentle romance – a first kiss. But the background for these familiar rites of passage is the often exhausting details of navigating institutions as a wheelchair user. Effie ultimately chooses the famously disability-friendly Berkley over her preferred New York university, when she realises that otherwise on top of being a student “I would have to be an unpaid accessibility consultant too”. A Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book. Author Claire Forrest lives in Minneapolis in the US. (Scholastic 2024)

Disability rep: main character uses a manual wheelchair & can walk a couple of steps.

Disability Visibility – a non-fiction YA anthology, Alice Wong. 12+

Esteemed US activist Alice Wong now brings us this new YA version of Disability Visibility. These are 17 truly diverse disabled voices: a Muslim with cerebral palsy navigates Ramadan, a Black deaf-blind Harvard Law graduate describes her relationship with her guide dog, a Deaf prisoner is refused an interpreter. Highly individual stories, but common themes – feeling “not disabled enough” pops up frequently. Some essays are adapted from its adult counterpart (reviewed here), others are brand new & chosen with young readers in mind. 12+ for subject, but a speedy read. (Random House 2021)

Contributors: Maysoon Zayid, Ariel Henley, June Eric-Udoire, Jeremy Woods, Ricardo T Thornton Sr, Haben Girma, Sandy Ho, Keah Brown, Zipporah Arielle, Alice Sheppard, Mari Ramsawakh, Shoshana Kessock, Lateef McLeod, Eugene Grant, Jamison Hill, Stacey Milbern, s.e Smith.

Disability rep: cerebral palsy, blindness, wheelchair users, dwarfism, facial disfigurement, ME, intellectual disability, MS, spina bifida, bipolar, lyme disease, MD. Content note: chapters carry content warnings, including sexual harassment and suicide. Light swearing.

Ugly – a YA memoir by Robert Hoge, age 12+

This memoir by Australian author Robert Hoge is adapted from Hoge’s adult autobiography, and includes illustrations and photographs of the author. This is an insider’s take on facial disfigurement, like the very good A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley – also on this list. While this book is gentler than Henley’s in terms of the details of surgery and recovery, Robert’s initial abandonment by his mother as a newborn in the opening chapters is shocking, and could be distressing for disabled child readers. For this reason I’ve bracketed it for age 12+ not younger. (Puffin 2017)

Disability rep: facial disfigurement and double leg amputee. Content note: parental rejection of Robert as a newborn, bullying by children and adults.

A Face for Picasso – YA memoir by Ariel Henley, 13+

Ariel Henley’s YA memoir is certainly an antidote to Wonder, and real life is far crueller than fiction. Our expectations are up-ended – the shock of “successful” surgery which changes her and her identical twin’s faces: “we cried for months, begging to go back to the way we were before.” There’s cheerleading and prizes for being “inspirational”. Adults don’t always treat Henley with anything like the care some fiction would have us imagine, but thankfully there’s none of the parental rejection of Ugly (above) here. A Schneider Honor Book. (FSG 2021)

Disability rep: Crouzon syndrome. Content note: very graphic descriptions of surgery. Distressing bullying from adults and children.

Sing If You Can’t Dance – YA novel by Alexia Casale, 13+

Sing If You Can’t Dance is a British teenage coming of age story with good solid disability / chronic illness representation – and a summer festival romance. After 16 year old Ven collapses on stage during a dance performance, everything changes. A chronic condition stops her dancing, and she mourns the loss. Walking can be hard, and she has to adapt to life with chronic pain. There’s romance, A Levels, friend dramas, and (refreshingly) supportive parents. There are also frustrating medical interactions, and frequent joint dislocations. Alexia Casale doesn’t sugar-coat chronic illness, or name her main character’s diagnosis – a decision I respect. (Faber 2023)

Disability rep: chronic illness, chronic pain. Content note: difficult medical encounters, frequent descriptions of dislocations.

Breathe and Count Back from Ten – novel by Natalia Sylvester, 13+

Verónica, a Peruvian-American teenager growing up in Florida, watches performing mermaids in an underwater theme park and dreams of joining them. Mermaids are another theme of this list – human here, not magical. Natalia Sylvester, who shares her character’s disability, draws on Peruvian mermaid myths and Hans Christian Andersen’s dark tale of pain and mortality. The myths speak to Verónica as she navigates disability (painful hip dysplasia), overprotective parents, and first love. Managing the transition to adulthood while disabled can be thorny. At 17, Verónica’s parents still communicate privately with her doctors, knowing more about her body than she does. She tries to draw new boundaries… Favourite line: “I’m in huge trouble with my parents because they found out I’m a mermaid”. (Clarion 2022)

Disability rep: main character has hip dysplasia, chronic pain. Content note: an encounter with questionable consent. Slut shaming by the main character’s parents.

Sick Kids in Love – Young Adult novel by Hannah Moskowitz, 14+

Disabled and ill characters die with concerning frequency in fiction. This YA love story between chronically ill teenagers was written as a counterpoint to The Fault in Our Stars and all books about ill teenagers meeting tragic ends. “They don’t die in this one”, boasts the cover.While many disabled teens describe this book as valuable, rare representation in their reviews, others criticise the framing of Isabel’s internalised ableism, and find the main character’s doctor-father’s ableism unresolved. Now only available from Amazon in the UK. (Entangled 2019)

Disability rep: rheumatoid arthritis, Gaucher Disease. Content note: some internalised ableism – main character initially says she’s “too young” for a mobility aid. In early passages, she ‘others’ people with cancer. Teenage characters have sex (without details), and swear.

Going Viral – by James Catchpole, illustrated by Jennifer Latham Robinson. Age 6+

This book is by James: “Going Viral is the story of something that happened to me a few years ago, when I showed off a football trick to some kids in the park, who turned out to be YouTubers. A couple of million people saw the video we made, in a strange and heady 48 hours of fame. It was a good trick. Thing is, what if YouTube had been around in the 90s, when I first learned to do it? How would that viral moment have felt when I was just ten years old?” – James Catchpole

Disability rep: leg amputee using crutches

Gwion’s World – by Jonny Cotson, illustrated by Zeynep Özatalay. Age 8+

Gwion is deaf in a hearing family. He goes to speech therapy, but finds it frustrating. He feels isolated even with his family: “I sometimes ask Mum, Dad and Elis what they’re talking about, but they say, ‘Never mind’ or ‘I’ll tell you later’.” Things change when he meets a girl at school (a CODA) whose parents are Deaf – he meets her parents, and the world of sign language and d/Deaf solidarity opens up to him. An utterly lovely book, with a very different endpoint from (the brilliant) El Deafo.

Disability rep: main character is d/Deaf and uses hearing aids, meets two Deaf adults, & learns BSL

Marceline, Defender of the Sea – Jen Campbell, illustrator Valentina Toro. 9+

As her classmates prepare for holidays, Marceline prepares to go into hospital for an operation. A booklover, stories keep her company, but she has EEC syndrome – none of the heroines of fairy tales look like her. She learns about the history of fairy tales, and decides to tell her own. Favourite quote: “if everyone spoke about disability more openly, instead of calling her words like ‘special’ or ‘inspirational’, it would make her life a lot easier”. Jen Campbell‘s author of The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers, & co-editor of Owning It.

Disability rep: EEC syndrome

Ruby Hastings Writes Her Own Story – by Rachel Charlton-Dailey, illustrated by Betsy Falco. Age 8+

11 year old Ruby Hastings loves writing, and looks up to a local disabled journalist. But her dyspraxia brings challenges, and not all her teachers are understanding. Devastated when her stories are rejected by the school newspaper, she starts her own… Rachel Charlton-Dailey is a journalist, she shares Ruby’s disability.

Disability rep: main character has dyspraxia. Also represented: wheelchair user, dyslexia & blindness.

Beaverly Hills – written and illustrated by Charlotte Middleton. Age 6+

A story about a beaver with teeth that are much smaller than the rest of the beavers’ – who finds that this disability has a definite upside.

Charlotte Middleton has been disabled all her life. She’s the author-illustrator of ‘Christopher Nibble’, which has been adapted into a popular puppet show, touring across the UK.

Audrey Fry is a spy! – by Jen Campbell, illustrated by Davide Ortu. Age 5+

Audrey has alopecia, and an impressive selection of wigs – which she uses to become a spy. She solves household mysteries, like – where has her pet hamster gone? Another book by Jen Campbell – of The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers, and Marceline, Defender of the Sea.

Disability rep: main character has alopecia.

Who are we?

We’re Lucy and James Catchpole, we’re both disabled, and we run the Catchpole Agency – a children’s literary agency – and sometimes write too. You can find us most reliably on Instagram.

Books by Lucy and James may interest you.

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