Titles that we recommend for pre-K - 12 and adults are featured below. The ones with reviews are noted with an asterisk (*). Some titles are recommended with a caveat.
Elementary | Middle School | High School | Adult | Learn More | Not Recommended
Fighting for Yes! The Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann
By Maryann Cocca-Leffler and Vivien Mildenberger (Illustrator), with an Afterword by Judith Heumann
A Head Full of Birds
By Alexandra Garibal, Sibylle Delacroix (Illustrator), and Vineet Lal (Translator)
Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion *
By Shannon Stocker and Devon Holzwarth (Illustrator)
My City Speaks
By Darren Lebeuf and Ashley Barron
Braille edition available here - My City Speaks (Braille edition)
¡Nosotros sí podemos hacerlo!
By Laura Dwight
Ray Charles
By Sharon Bell Mathis
Sam's Super Seats
By Keah Brown and Sharee Miller (Illustrator)
Tenacious: Fifteen Adventures Alongside Disabled Athletes
By Patty Cisneros Prevo and Dion MBD (Illustrator)
Unbound: The Life and Art of Judith Scott
By Joyce Wallace Scott, Brie Spangler, and Melissa Sweet (Illustrator)
We Can Do It!
By Laura Dwight
We Move Together
By Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, and Eduardo Trejos (Illustrator)
We Want to Go to School! The Fight for Disability Rights
By Maryann Cocca-Leffler and Janine Leffler
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
By Mem Fox, Julie Vivas (Illustrator)
What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
By Chris Barton, Ekua Holmes (Illustrator)
Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Spark a Revolution
By Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner
Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability
Edited by Sheila Black, Jennifer Bartlett, Michael Northen
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist
By Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner
Typed Words, Loud Voices
By Amy Sequenzia (Editor), Elizabeth J. Grace (Editor), Melanie Yergeau (Foreword by)
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets Psychiatric Drugs & the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
By Robert Whitaker
Source documents: Mad in America - Anatomy Source Documents
Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada
Edited by Liat Ben-Moshe, Chris Chapman, Allison C. Carey, Foreword by Angela Y. Davis
Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, & the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill
By Robert Whitaker
Documents and more information at: Mad in America.com
Soteria: Through Madness to Deliverance
By Loren Mosher and Voyce Hendrix
Testimonials: "Schizophrenia" Without Antipsychotic Drugs & The Legacy of Loren Mosher
The Zyprexa Papers
By Jim Gottstein
Reviewed at CounterPunch: The Zyprexa Papers: A Legal System for Drug Companies and Lawyers…Not the Public
Learn More
- Crip Camp film
- Disability Visibility Project Podcast
- Mad in America Family Resources a forum providing alternatives to conventional, drug-based psychiatric care
- Rethinking the Inclusive Classroom an article at Rethinking Schools
- The Story of One Union’s Journey Toward Disability Justice an article at Rethinking Schools
- What Catalina Taught Me About Inclusion an article at Rethinking Schools
Not recommended
- Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland
Learn about our criteria for selecting titles at Social Justice Books. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome.
Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform) and / or Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.