Disabilities in Children’s Literature: An Annotated Bibliography

 

Children’s Literature

Root, Shelton L, and Barabara Z Kiefer. “Children’s Literature.” Gale Ebooks, Gale, 2003, go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&u=newpaltz&id=GALE|CX3403200108&v=2.1&it=r&sid =GVRL&asid=66b9d910.

This reference book discusses the impact of literature on children and the development of children’s literature. The author explains that originally children did not read for fun and the books were more didactic. Children’s literature is also beneficial for a child to understand the world more accurately, themselves as a person, and written language.

This article could be beneficial to my research, and a reliable source. It is not biased, and just objective. The goal of this source is to explain generally what children’s literature is as well as the history of it. This source is different from the other sources because this source solely discusses literature rather than both disabilities and children literature.

I found this article interesting because I was unaware that children’s books were mainly used to teach letter sounds and words. My knowledge has expanded on the history of children’s literature and how it has been developed. This article could help my argument because it explains the impact literature has on children.

Special Stories for Disability Awareness: Stories and Activities for Teachers, Parents and Professionals

Leicester, Mal. “ Special Stories for Disability Awareness: Stories and Activities for Teachers, Parents and Professionals .” New Paltz Sojourner Truth Library, 2007, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/newpaltz-ebooks/detail.action?pqorigsite=primo&docID=296040.

This book shines a new light on the disabilities and the heroes in the stories have a disability. The point of this book is to show abilities of those with disabilities and give kids a positive outlook. Important topics covered in this eBook are bullying, caretaking, and proper behavior around those with disabilities.

Mal Leicester has her PhD in Metaphysics and Multicultural Education who is also the author of Disability Voice. What makes this book different from the other sources is that this source focuses on the importance of involving disabilities in children’s literature as well as stories including disabilities in children’s stories.

This source is helpful to my research because it teaches the importance of focusing on acceptance of those with disabilities and provides me with examples of positive disabled characters in children’s literature. This book as changed my outlook that most children’s literature does not accurately expose children to disabilities in an educational way. I believe I will be able to use this book for my research.

Respectful Representations of Disability in Picture Books

Pennell, Ashley E., et al. “Respectful Representations of Disability in Picture Books.” International Literacy Association, 2017, ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/trtr.1632.

This journal discusses the importance of more books about children with disabilities. These books can help children better understand themselves and others, as well as get educated about disabilities. This source also states that including disabilities in books will help eliminate some naïve misconceptions. Not only would this be beneficial to kids without disabilities it would also help children with disabilities feel more included.

This source is similar to the Special Stories for Disability Awareness source because both talk about the importance of disabilities in children’s literature. However, this source is different from the Children’s Literature since it does not focus on the importance of literature as much as it does disabilities in literature.

This journal may be useful for my research due to the focus on how both children with and without disabilities are affected by disabilities in children’s literature. Originally, my argument was to put disabilities in children’s books to educate kids and normalize disabilities. I did not realize that this would also be beneficial for those with disabilities as well.

Representing Differences: The Portrayal of Disabilities in Children’s Literature

Cornejo, Abigail. “Representing Differences: The Portrayal of Disabilities in Children’s Literature: Oneota Reading Journal.” Luther College, 2019, www.luther.edu/oneotareading-journal/2019/Manuscripts/representingDifferences/.

In this internet source, the author gives examples of accurately represented disabilities in literature. This source also discusses how to represent a disability which means including meaningful relationships with other, active leadership roles, and friendships built on common interests. Finally, this article emphasizes the importance of avoiding stereotypes.

The article is from Luther College and is written by Abigail Cornejo. This source is different from the Children’s Literature source. Yet it is most similar to Special Stories for Disability Awareness because both provide stories that include a positive main character with a disability.

I found this article interesting because of the in-depth descriptions of different books and how they represent different disabilities including physical, developmental, and learning disabilities. I am unsure if I will be including this source in my research because it may be beneficial however it is remarkably similar to my other sources and is not as credible as Special Stories for Disability Awareness.

Exploring Issues of Disability in Children’s Literature Discussions

Adomat, Donna. “Exploring Issues of Disability in Children’s Literature Discussions.” EBSCOhost, 2014, web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=97f809f3-1bc0- 49f4-b851-cf2dfe2eb3f9%40sdc-vsessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=100886065&db=eue.

In this article it covers breaking “normal” boundaries, introducing children to disabilities in literature, discussions, social conditions, and promoting positive outlooks on disabilities. This source includes children talking about how they feel about the books and characters that have disabilities and whether they are sympathizing with the disability or appreciating the character as a person. Overall, there were positive outcomes because students were getting educated in a positive way about disabilities.

Donna Sayers Adomat is an associate professor emeritus at Indiana University in Bloomington. This source is different from the other sources because it provides feedback from children who have read books including disabilities.

I found this article interesting because of the children’s takes on disabilities. This source is especially useful to me to see how beneficial introducing disabilities through books would be. I will most likely be including this source in my research project and helps prove my argument that disabilities should be normalized in children’s literature.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PQqVn6dFkYBrH7310cSzaNKuPoSJQPGuHvEcGVUYQQ4/edit?usp=sharing