Disability & Mental Health
Six Of Crows
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Description: Six of Crows is an adventure story with five main characters, two of whom live with disabilities and mental health issues that include chronic pain and trauma.
Includes: #disability #chronicpain #trauma #magic #fantasy #femaleprotagonist #maleprotagonist
Citation: Badugo, L. (2015). Six of Crows. Henry Holt and Company.
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Fragile Like Us
Author: Sara Barnard
Description: Fragile Like Us is a contemporary story about female friendships and platonic love. It centers around three girls, two of whom have been friends their whole lives, and one whom they have just met. This story deals with mental health issues, trauma, abuse, and bipolar disorder.
Includes: #femalprotagonist #mentalhealth #trauma #abuse #bipolar
Citation: Barnard, S. (2018). Fragile Like Us. Simon Pulse.
Image retrieved from: Goodreads.
Little & Lion
Author: Brandy Colbert
Description: Little & Lion is about a bisexual Black girl coming to terms with her identity and her white step brother who is dealing with his recently diagnosed bipolar disorder. Both are both are falling for the same girl. This book also has lesbian characters, a prominent biracial Korean/Black character who wears a hearing aid, interracial relationships, references to abortion, and discussions around what it means to be loyal and what it means to care.
Includes: #bisexual #LGBTQIA #africanamerican #black #femaleprotagonist #contemporary #mentalhealth #bipolar #judaism #youngadultliterature
Citation: Colbert, B. (2017). Little & Lion. Little, Brown.
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For A Muse of Fire
Author: Heidi Heilig
Description: For A Muse of Fire is a fantasy novel about girl with Bipolar Disorder who has the ability to bind the souls of the recently departed to the puppets she works with as a puppeteer. The story follows her as she gets mixed up in royal intrigue and adventure. The story is based on Asian folklore and French colonialism.
Includes: #mentalhealth #bipolar #asianamerican #asian #fantasy #magic #femaleprotagonist
Citation:Heilig, H. (2018). For A Muse of Fire. Greenwillow Books.
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Run
Author: Kody Keplinger
Description: Run is a contemporary novel with alternating perspectives between two girls. Both girls have been put into boxes by their peers and everyone thinks they know who these girls truly are: One girl has a reputation for being a wild child and the other is legally blind. This book, by a blind author, follows their adventure of running away from their community together.
Includes: #femaleprotagonist #disability #blind #LGBTQIA #bisexual #contemporary
Citation: Keplinger, K. (2016). Run. Scholastic Press.
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That’s Not What happened
Author: Kody Keplinger
Description: That’s Not What Happened is a contemporary novel about the six surviving witnesses of a school shooting. The story picks up three years after the shooting and tracks the ways in which memory and perspective have clouded the story of what actually happened. Through a series of letters from each witness, the protagonist’s understanding of the shooting becomes more complex. This is a book about trauma, the influence of the media, and about the ways in which memory is not always accurate. This book includes a blind character and was written by a blind author.
Includes: #disability #blind #LGBTQIA #asexual #femaleprotagonist #contemporary #trauma #schoolshootings
Citation: Keplinger, K. (2018). That’s Not What Happened. Scholastic Press.
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Darius The Great Is Not Okay
Author: Adib Khorram
Description: Darius The Great Is Not Okay is a contemporary novel about a biracial white and Iranian boy who lives with depression. The story centers around his first trip to visit his family in Iran and the friendship he builds with a boy there.
Includes: #maleprotagonist #LGBTQIA #biracial #asianamerican #iranian #mentalhealth #depression
Citation: Khorram, A. (2018). Darius The Great Is Not Okay. Dial Books.
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The State of Grace
Author: Rachael Lucas
Description: The State of Grace is a contemporary novel about a girl with Aspergers Syndrome. She has always felt content with her best friend and her horse but everything changes when she has her first kiss and problems arise at home. She has to make sense of her new reality and fix the things that are going wrong in her life.
Includes: #disability #autism #aspergers #femaleprotagonist #contemporary
Citation: Lucas, R. (2017). The State of Grace. Macmillan Children’s Books.
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A Song Below Water
Author: Bethany C. Morrow
Description: A Song Below Water is a grounded fantasy novel set in the Pacific Northwest city of Portland. The book follows two Black teenage girls, one who is a siren and the other who is an unknown magical being. Forced to keep her siren identity secret due to the stigma placed on Black women sirens, one protagonist uses American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate when her voice feels like too much. The other main character, who is discovering her magical connection, uses ASL to communicate when performing as an underwater mermaid in the local renaissance fairs. This book also deals with the ivtersectionalities of race and womanhood.
Includes: #africanamerican #black #femaleprotagonist #sayhername #sirens #americansignlanguage #ASL #fantasy #magic #alternativeworlds #youngadultliterature
Citation: Morrow, B.C. (2020). A Song Below Water. Tor Teen.
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Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens
Editor: Marieke Nijkamp
Description: Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens is a collection of short stories by well known young adult authors with physical disabilities, chronic pain, and or mental health issues. The stories include a multitude of genres.
Includes: #disability #mentalhealth
Citation: Nijkamp, M. (2018). Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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Cursed
Author: Karol Ruth Silverstein
Description: Cursed is a contemporary novel about a Jewish teen girl with chronic pain from juvenile arthritis. When during her 9th grade year she gets diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, her parents get divorced, and she has to transfer to a school district where 9th graders are still in middle school instead of high school, she feels cursed. After hiding her disability from her friends and cutting school, she is found out and forced to return back to middle school.
Includes: #femaleprotagonist #contemporary #disability #chronicpain #juvenilearthritis #judaism #jewish #youngadultliterature
Citation: Silverstein, K.R. (2019). Cursed. Charlesbridge.
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Far From You
Author: Tess Sharpe
Description: Far From You is a contemporary murder mystery. It follows a girl with a physical disability resulting from a car crash who is in recovery from a drug addiction and whose friend was murdered.
Includes: #mentalhealth #disability #addiction #femaleprotagonist #chronicpain #mobilityissues #LGBTQIA
Citation: Sharpe, T. (2014).Far From You. Indigo.
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Marcelo and the Real World
Author: Francisco X. Stork
Description: Marcelo in The Real World is a contemporary novel about a boy with Autism. It follows his experience working at his dad’s legal firm during the summer between his junior and senior year of high school.
Includes: #maleprotagonist #disability #autism #contemporary
Citation: Stork, M. X. (2009). Marcelo In The Real World. Arthur A. Levine Books.
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Feathers
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Description: Feathers is a coming of age story set in the 1970’s about a Black girl whose brother is deaf and whose mother is dealing with depression. The story picks up when a new boy arrives at the protagonists school. Like her, he speaks both spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL). Unlike her, he is white. The two build a connection as she learns to re-frame her viewpoint on her brother’s deafness, her mom’s fear, and her own school community. This book also deals with the ivtersectionalities of race and disability.
Includes: #femaleprotagonist #africanamerican #black #historical #youngadultliterature
Citation: Woodson, J. (2007). Feathers. G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.
Image retrieved from: Goodreads.