Fiction

Stuck in Neutral.  Terry Trueman.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him.

Cruise Control .  Terry Trueman.
A talented basketball player struggles to deal with the helplessness and anger that come with having a brother rendered completely dysfunctional by severe cerebral palsy and a father who deserted the family. Companion to Stuck in Neutral.

Of Sound Mind.  Jean Ferris.
Tired of interpreting for his deaf family and resentful of their reliance on him, high school senior Theo finds support and understanding from Ivy, a new student who also has a deaf parent.

Dreaming in Black & White. Reinhardt Jung.
Through his dreams, a boy with severe birth defects travels sixty years back in time to Germany during the Third Reich; in the dreams he is a boy named Hannes, a "cripple." Hannes's father agrees to institutionalize, and perhaps kill, him--a betrayal the boy sees mirrored in the present in his family's attitudes about genetic testing.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.  Mark Haddon.
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

Freak the Mighty.  W.R. Philbrick.
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend Freak, whose birth defect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a powerful team.

Stoner and Spaz. Ronald Koertge
A 16-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who keeps afloat on his black humor and his love of movies, falls for a beautiful drug addict.

Inside Out. Terry Trueman.
While a 16-year-old battling schizophrenia waits in a coffee shop for his mother to arrive with his medication, two boys attempt to rob the cafe and take hostages.

Things Not Seen.  Andrew Clements.
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.

Dovey Coe. Frances O’Roark Dowell.
Accused of murder in her North Carolina mountain town in 1928, Dovey Coe, a stronged-willed twelve-year-old girl, comes to a new understanding of others, including her deaf brother, as she attempts to clear her name.

The Raging Quiet.  Sherryl Jordan
Suspicious of sixteen-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.

The Window.  Jeanette Ingold.
When she comes to live with relatives on a Texas farm, fifteen-year-old Mandy encounters the grandmother she never knew and begins to come to terms with her blindness caused by the automobile accident that killed her mother.

Mind’s Eye.  Paul Fleischman.
A novel in play form in which sixteen-year-old Courtney, paralyzed in an accident, learns about the power of the mind from an elderly blind woman who takes Courtney on an imaginary journey to Italy using a 1910 guidebook.

Summer of Swans. Betsy Cromer Byars.
A teenage girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her mentally retarded brother gets lost.

Petey.  Ben Mikaelsen.
In 1922 Petey, who has cerebral palsy, is misdiagnosed as an idiot and institutionalized; sixty years later, still in the institution, he befriends a boy and shares with him the joy of life.

Harry Sue.  Sue Stauffacher.
Although tough-talking Harry Sue would like to start a life of crime in order to be "sent up" and find her incarcerated mother, she must first protect the children at her neglectful grandmother's home day care center and befriend a paralyzed boy.

Al Capone Does My Shirts. Gennifer Choldenko.
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

EA 9/2006