Disabilities and Disorders in Literature for Youth

This is a valuable, useful resource. * American Reference Books Annual *
The twelfth volume in Scarecrow's Literature for Youth series identifies approximately 1,000 resources to help educators, parents, siblings, and students address the challenges faced by one in every five Americans. The first four of nine chapters each focus on one major area of disabilities/disorders-"Emotional," "Learning," "Physical," and "Multiple"-divided into fiction and nonfiction works. Each numbered entry includes an annotation complete with bibliographical descriptions, grade-level appropriateness, and awards. The remaining five chapters cover "General Reference Resources," "Educators/Parents/Professional Resources," "Media Resources," "Internet Resources," and "Journals/Magazines." The appendixes list awards and disability-related events. Multiple indexes allow a variety of approaches to the book's content. This title will provide one-stop shopping for school and young adult librarians seeking to build their collections on this topic. * Booklist, June 2010 *
The scope of this book is broad and the subject matter is important in the world in which we live. As stated in the introduction, 'One in five Americans currently lives with at least one disability or disorder.' This text takes on the task of selecting and describing books for children that include characters with emotional, cognitive, and physical disabilities, ranging from low-incidence disabilities such as visual impairments to high-incidence disorders such as ADHD. Hundreds of books, both fiction and nonfiction, are included in each chapter. Each entry includes the title, author, publisher, year of publication, ISBN, and grade level, as well as a short annotation. While the lists are extensive, there does not seem to be a systematic method of selection for inclusion. The publication dates are primarily in the 2000s; however some books were published in the '80s and '90s and a few were published even earlier. No attempt is made to analyze how they compare or how they deal with the disability or disorder included within. Chapters six through nine include information on other media representations of disability, including journals, magazines, internet sources, DVDs, and professional resources. * School Library Journal *
The book features several useful indexes for author, title, series, illustrator, and subject. The index for grade level is very handy for educators. This must-have book is a great resource for readers' advisory, and it is also invaluable for parents and educators. * VOYA, April 2010 *