Diverse Collection Ideas

A mother recently visited my library to try and find some picture books showing kids with hearing aids for her young daughter. I spent time emailing librarians, tracking down book lists, and even visiting the audiologist for book ideas and donations. Despite my tenacity, I rarely locate good material containing children with any disabilities easily. With the recent #weneeddiversebooks movement, I would say that diversity is a watchword for kids’ books in 2016.

I have since discovered some excellent books and resources that I hope will be useful to your library!

One great website on disabilities in children’s literature is disabilityinkidlit.com. Here, all of the book reviewers have the same disability portrayed in the books they discuss, and their points are often relevant and insightful. Disability In Kidlit is also full of interesting articles, author interviews, and lists (not vetted) of disability-related titles on GoodReads.

I discovered Dave Kot and Face Value Comics (www.facevaluecomics.com) through an entry in the PreviewsWorld comic book ordering catalog. The steampunk illustrations and futuristic plot are addictive! This comic book series gives our world its very first autistic hero. I really like how this series is illustrated using the Facial Action Coding System, and gives child-friendly explanations of facial expressions. I also find it intriguing that there is a young villain with a disability, and can’t wait to learn how that aspect of the storyline is continued in the third issue.

By “liking” the Face Value Comics Facebook page, I came across Metaphase by Chip Reece about Ollie, a teen who has Down’s Syndrome. More importantly, he also has an overprotective superhero father who won’t let him develop his own superpowers. Ever resourceful, Ollie finds a genetics company that might either turn him into a hero or destroy his family. When I read this comic book, the father-son conversations that started the book seemed to echo conversations I hear in my life as a mentor for people with cognitive disabilities. Metaphase was a fast-paced read with many laughs along the way.

I couldn’t be happier that diversity is a focus in children’s literature, and am excited to see what the future of children’s publishing holds in this area!

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Our guest blogger today is Tina Dolcetti. She currently works for the Moose Jaw Public Library as a Children’s Librarian. By night, Tina can be found in her community, mentoring an adult with a cognitive disability for the Saskatchewan Association for Community Living.

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.