Children's Books...?
Hi everyone!
My name is Chrissy and I'm a Primary School Teacher in a mainstream school. Recently a child in my class asked me if I knew any books or movies about Princesses who were disabled. I did some research and realised that actually there seemed to be very few books which weren't solely about disability which included disabled characters.
Now, despite a small amount of experience working in a school for children with MLD, and children in my current setting who have SEND as well as a brother who has Downs Syndrome, I'm pretty lacking in knowledge as far as this area is concerned.
I'd be interested to know if any parents or carers (or indeed anyone with an opinion), feel like this could be a worthwhile gap, would the children you know benefit from reading books with characters they might be able to more closely relate to?
In addition to this (and here's where I'm probably just being a little cheeky!), would you be able to point me in the way of any research or advice which could help those characters be truly reflective of what living with those disabilities actually looks like, instead of a stereotype with no real basis?
Your responses will be so very much appreciated!
Chrissy
Comments
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Hi Chrissy, welcome to the community!
Scope ran a campaign many years ago called In The Picture, which focussed on disabled characters in storybooks. Quentin Blake even did some illustrations for us!
Here's some information:
http://www.scope.org.uk/support/families/books/kids/10-principles
http://www.scope.org.uk/support/families/books/kids/websites
And a blog I wrote: https://blog.scope.org.uk/2014/10/01/the-five-of-us-by-quentin-blake/
And here' our Pinterest board which features books you can buy for your school with inclusion at their heart: https://uk.pinterest.com/scopestories/books-with-disabled-characters/
Would be great to hear more from other people too!
Jen
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