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  Noah Chases the Wind

  Michelle Worthington

  Noah is different. He sees, hears, feels, and thinks in ways that other people don't always understand, and he asks a lot of questions along the way. Noah loves science, especially the weather. His books usually provide him with the answers he needs, until one day, there's one question they don't answer—and that is where Noah's windy adventure begins.

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  Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II

  Ronald Koertge

  High schooler Ben Bancroft, a budding filmmaker with cerebral palsy, struggles to understand his relationship with drug-addict Colleen while he explores a new friendship with A.J., who shares his obsession with movies and makes a good impression on Ben's grandmother.

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  Oddly Normal: One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality

  John Schwartz

  A heartfelt memoir by the father of a gay teen, and an eye-opening guide for families who hope to bring up well-adjusted gay adults. Three years ago, John Schwartz, a national correspondent at The New York Times, got the call that every parent hopes never to receive: his thirteen-year-old son, Joe, was in the hospital following a suicide attempt. Mustering the courage to come out to his classmates, Joe's disclosure--delivered in a tirade about homophobic attitudes--was greeted with unease and confusion by his fellow students. Hours later, he took an overdose of pills. In the aftermath, John and his wife, Jeanne, determined to help Joe feel more comfortable in his own skin, launched a search for services and groups that could help Joe understand that he wasn't alone. This book is Schwartz's very personal attempt to address his family's struggles within a culture that is changing fast, but not fast enough to help gay kids like Joe.

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  On Being Sarah

  Elizabeth S. Helfman

  Twelve-year-old Sarah Bennett, a young victim of cerebral palsy, yearns to become a part of the "normal" world, and she gets her chance when she is mainstreamed into a regular school, makes a new best friend, and learns to come to terms with her special challenge.

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  One-Third Nerd

  Gennifer Choldenko

  Fifth grade is not for amateurs, according to Liam. Luckily, he knows that being more than one-third nerd is not cool. Liam lives in the Bay area near San Francisco with his mom and two younger sisters. Dakota is fascinated by science and has a big personality but struggles to make friends; Izzy, a child with Down syndrome, makes friends easily and notices things that go past everyone else. Dad lives across town, but he's over a lot. And then there's Cupcake, their lovable German shepherd, who guards their basement apartment.

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  Out of My Mind

  Sharon M. Draper

  Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory. She can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom, the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy, and she's determined to let everyone know it, somehow.

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  Owen Has Burgers and Drum: Helping to Understand and Befriend Kids with Asperger's Syndrome

  Christine M. Shiels and Frank R. Pane

  Cal befriends the new boy at school, Owen, and learns how Owen's behavior is affected by Asperger's syndrome, a part of the autism spectrum characterized by difficulties in social interaction.

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  People with Disabilities

  Hayley Mitchell Haugen

  This volume provides an overview of people with disabilities in the United States, a chronology of important events, an annotated bibliography, and other resources for conducting further research. The author illuminates this often-neglected human side of these problems by presenting a collection of personal narratives of people who have had personal experience with physical and mental disabilities as participants, witnesses, or involved professionals.

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  People with Disabilities (What Do You Know About It)

  Pete Sanders and Steve Myers

  Discusses what it means to have a physical impairment or learning disability and the effects of such challenges on the disabled person and those around him.

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  Petey

  Ben Mikaelsen

  In 1922, at the age of two, Petey's distraught parents commit him to the state's insane asylum, unaware that their son is actually suffering from severe cerebral palsy. Bound by his wheelchair and struggling to communicate with the people around him, Petey finds a way to remain kind and generous despite the horrific conditions in his new "home." Through the decades, he befriends several caretakers but is heartbroken when each eventually leaves him. Determined not to be hurt again, he vows to no longer let hope of lifelong friends and family torment him. That changes after he is moved into a nursing home and meets a young teen named Trevor Ladd; he sees something in the boy and decides to risk friendship one last time. Trevor, new to town and a bit of a loner, is at first weary of the old man in the wheelchair. But after hearing more of his story, Trevor learns that there is much more to Petey than meets the eye.

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  Queens of Geek

  Jen Wilde

  Charlie likes to stand out. She's a vlogger and actress promoting her first movie at SupaCon, and this is her chance to show fans she's over her public breakup with co-star Reese Ryan. When internet-famous cool-girl actress Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie's long-time crush on her isn't as one-sided as she thought. Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there's one thing in her life she knows will never change: her friendship with her best guy friend Jamie-no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about a fan contest for her favorite fandom, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.

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  Rage: A Love Story

  Julie Anne Peters

  At the end of high school, Johanna finally begins dating the girl she has loved from afar, but Reeve is as much trouble as she claims to be as she and her twin brother damage Johanna's self-esteem, friendships, and already precarious relationship with her sister.

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  Red Sky in the Morning

  Elizabeth Laird

  Although she loves her baby brother, Anna finds herself trying to hide his severe physical and mental disability from her friends.

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  Rules

  Cynthia Lord

  Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"--In order to head off David's embarrassing behaviours. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of-friend, and Kristi, the potential next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behaviour that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

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  Silent Days, Silent Dreams

  Allen Say

  James Castle was born two months premature on September 25, 1899, on a farm in Garden Valley, Idaho. He was deaf, mute, autistic, and probably dyslexic. He didn't walk until he was four; he would never learn to speak, write, read, or use sign language. Yet, today Castle's artwork hangs in major museums throughout the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art opened "James Castle: A Retrospective" in 2008. The 2013 Venice Biennale included eleven works by Castle in the feature exhibition "The Encyclopedic Palace." And his reputation continues to grow. Caldecott Medal winner Allen Say, author of the acclaimed memoir Drawing from Memory, takes readers through an imagined look at Castle's childhood, allows them to experience his emergence as an artist despite the overwhelming difficulties he faced, and ultimately reveals the triumphs that he would go on to achieve.

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  Since We're Friends: An Autism Picture Book

  Celeste Shally

  A boy describes his friendship with Matt, whose autism spectrum disorder causes him to behave strangely at times, and how he make things easier for Matt at school and in their neighborhood.

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  Special People, Special Ways

  Arlene H. Maguire

  A poem about the ways in which people with many differences in physical and mental ability share the same human needs for love and understanding.

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  Stoner & Spaz

  Ronald Koertge

  A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-addicted young woman.

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  Stuck in Neutral

  Terry Trueman

  Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function physically in any way, not even to show his intelligence and awareness of his life, his family, and his condition. How does he cope with the suspicion that his father is planning to kill him?

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  Summerlost

  Ally Condie

  It's the first real summer since the accident that killed Cedar's father and younger brother, Ben. Cedar and what’s left of her family are returning to the town of Iron Creek for the summer. They’re just settling into their new house when a boy named Leo, dressed in costume, rides by on his bike. Intrigued, Cedar follows him to the renowned Summerlost theatre festival. Soon, she not only has a new friend in Leo and a job working concessions at the festival, she finds herself surrounded by mystery. The mystery of the tragic, too-short life of the Hollywood actress who haunts the halls of Summerlost. And the mystery of the strange gifts that keep appearing for Cedar.

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  The Bridge Home

  Padma Venkatraman

  Life is harsh in Chennai's teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter--and friendship--on an abandoned bridge. With two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul, the group forms a family of sorts. And while making a living scavenging the city's trash heaps is the pits, the kids find plenty to laugh about and take pride in too. After all, they are now the bosses of themselves and no longer dependent on untrustworthy adults. But when illness strikes, Viji must decide whether to risk seeking help from strangers or to keep holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom.

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  The Chalk Rainbow

  Deborah Kelly

  Zane is different to other kids. He has his own made-up language. He likes to line things up. And he is frightened of things that don’t seem to bother other people — like the colour black. His father gets frustrated and angry with Zane. His mother tries hard to explain things to him. But nothing seems to work. Zane just scrunches himself up into a ball and screams. Things are looking pretty bleak for Zane and his family; that is, until Zane’s big sister starts to draw a chalk rainbow at the top of the front steps … The Chalk Rainbow explores difference and diversity through a family living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It’s also a story of unconditional love, of trust and of learning to look at the world through the eyes of others. The story is told by Zane’s older sister in a way that young children can easily relate to. The ending is uplifting as all members of the family learn to look at things differently and find a way to move forward together.

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  The Flight of a Dove

  Alexandra Day

  Betsy is a child trapped inside her own body. Her autism keeps her isolated and alone, a world apart from even her mother. After hearing about a school for children with developmental disabilities, Betsy's mother enrolls her with high hopes. But once there, Betsy cries uncontrollably and refuses all attempts to comfort her. She sits with her eyes shut tight and her fists clenched. The head teacher believes that animals sometimes help children overcome problems, so she tries to engage Betsy with the many pets in residence at the school. Betsy shows no interest in any of them -- until the day one special bird manages to catch her attention.

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  The Girl Who Thought in Pictures

  Julia Mosca

  Describes the life and accomplishments of the animal scientist and designer of cruelty-free livestock facilities, from her early life and autism diagnosis through her journey to become a livestock expert.

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  The Lottery Plus One

  Emma Donoghue

  Once upon a time, two couples with Jamaican, Mohawk, Indian, and Scottish ethnic roots won the lottery and bought a big house where all of them, four adults and seven adopted and biological children, could live together in harmony--but change is inevitable, especially when a disagreeable grandfather comes to stay.