Book Reviews

Friends at School by Rochelle Bunnett
Friends at School gives the picture of an inclusive classroom composed of children from diverse backgrounds and different abilities. The book tells a little bit about each student, their abilities, and their interests. It shows the students involved in a variety of activities in the classroom including performing a puppet show and making snack. It shows how all the children can work closely and productively and their differences are not a major issue in the classroom. This book is good for kindergarten and early elementary school classrooms. It shows all students that they can be part of a learning community that is inclusive and excepting.

Jehu’s Shoes by Jehu Brown
Jehu’s Shoes is about a boy who wants to attend a formal event at school. He is embarrassed because he does not have any nice shoes to wear; in fact he only has one pair of shoes that his mom refers to as his “special shoes.” Jehu has cerebral palsy and has difficulty walking; his “special shoes” are accommodating for his disability and make room for a brace that he wears on one leg. Jehu’s best friend Melissa, who doesn’t want to wear any shoes except for her old lucky white shoes, tries to help Jehu ruin his special shoes so his mom will have to buy him new ones. Jehu’s mom finds out what Jehu’s doing and is angry at first. But when Jehu explains why he wants new shoes, his mother understands and surprises him the morning of the formal with a pair of new shoes.
This story is appropriate to read with early elementary school children. Jehu’s disability is only mentioned once in the story, but students can make the connection between his disability and how it sometimes causes Jehu problems that embarrass him. Jehu deals with his problems in the same way a typical child of his age would and his friend Melissa treats him as if he doesn’t have any disability. This story shows how cerebral palsy doesn’t have to define a child’s personality but it can have an effect on his or her daily life that others should be aware of.

Noonday Trail: The Gun Lake Adventure Series Book 4
by Johnnie Tuitel and Sharon Lamson (106 pages)
Noonday Trail is about Johnnie, a typical adventure loving boy, who is in a wheel chair because he has cerebral palsy. Johnnie describes his experiences starting at a new middle school and how he feels about the accommodations his teachers make for him because of his disability. Often Johnnie feels these accommodations are unnecessary and that his teachers underestimate his abilities. He proves that he is independent and capable in many ways including joining the football team. Johnnie also becomes involved in solving a mystery surrounding a stolen necklace from an exhibit about local Native Americans. Noonday Trail is part of a series for 3rd through 6th graders about Johnnie’s various adventures. It is good that there is a series available to young readers whose main character has cerebral palsy. Johnnie is a good role model because he is confident, willing to speak up for himself, and not afraid to try new things. However his problems almost seem to be solved too easily. Johnnie is always able to change people’s minds with one brief statement. The conflicts in this book don’t feel realistic and children might find it hard to relate to the characters. It does give a good picture of how children with physical disabilities can accomplish things that may surprise people, but it also gives the impression that children with disabilities never really feel challenged.

The Sneetches by Dr. Suess
In The Sneetches there are two kinds of Sneetches, ones with stars on their bellies and ones without. The Sneetches with stars do not respect the other Sneetches or include them in their activities. A man comes to town and sells the Sneetches with no stars a machine that puts stars on their bellies. The Sneetches with stars didn’t like this and bought a machine that removed the stars on their bellies so they would still be different from the other Sneetches. The Sneetches keep going through the machines adding and removing stars and eventually they cannot remember which Sneetches originally had stars and which did not and they stop giving importance to the stars. This story doesn’t directly discuss any disability but it discusses an issue that people with disabilities often deal with, feeling excluded. It shows that individuals are sometimes discriminated against with little reason. It shows what great lengths people will go through both to fit in and to portray a “superior” status. In the end, it suggests that the individual differences by which people judge each other do not make individuals inherently different. This story could be used in a classroom if some children are feeling excluded. It could be used to start a discussion about respecting individuals and not judging people by their physical differences.

Stretching Ourselves: Kids with Cerebral Palsy by Alden Carter
Stretching Ourselves is a non-fiction book for children in early elementary school. It gives a description and basic information about Cerebral Palsy. It tells the stories of a few children who have cerebral palsy and are affected by it differently. It tells about what kinds of things the children like to do, the difficulties they face because of cerebral palsy, and how they each deal with their disabilities in their own ways. This book can be helpful in a classroom for students who may not understand what it really means to have cerebral palsy. The personal stories and pictures can help students see how cerebral palsy affects children similar to them. This book puts a face to a disability which can be hard for children to understand.

Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis
Susan Laughs is a picture book that describes many activities that a little girl named Susan likes to do in rhymes. She does lots of things that young children do like sing, dance, paint, and she even gets mad and sad. The end of the book shows Susan in a wheel chair and the reader realizes that having a disability has not stopped Susan from doing many things that other children do. This book is a good way to introduce a discussion about disabilities to preschoolers and kindergartners. It is an easy and fun book to read because of the rhyming words and pictures that are very engaging. Children can see that even though some kids have disabilities it doesn’t stop them from acting or feeling like other kids.

Views from Our Shoes: Growing Up with a Brother or Sister With Special Needs by Donald J. Meyer. Illustrated by Cary Pillo.
Views from Our Shoes is a collection of stories from children across the United States who have siblings with special needs. The children range in age from four to eighteen and their brothers and sisters have all kinds of special needs, including cerebral palsey, autism, attention deficit disorder and more. Each story provides a very unique perspective and gives insights to the thoughts and feelings of these children. The children are very honest and open about the good and bad parts of their situations. Some of them recall difficult situations they have been in with their siblings, others give summaries of their lives and how they think they have been affected by their siblings’ disabilities. This book is not only helpful to siblings of students with special needs, but could be eye opening to any child or adult who might hold misconceptions about children with special needs. This book will make people reconsider how they approach the family of a special needs child. Readers can learn a lot from these stories just as the children who told them have learned from their siblings.