Special Collections
Schneider Family Book Award Winners (disability related)
Description: The Schneider Family Book Awards honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. #disability #award #kids #teens
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The Deaf Musicians
by Pete Seeger and Paul Dubois JacobsLee is a piano man. Every night, he plays jazz for the crowd. It sounds something like this:
Plink-a-plink-BOMP-plink-plink.
Yimba-timba-TANG-ZANG-ZANG.
One night, Lee's bandmates notice something is off. Lee's music comes out like this:
Ronk. Phip. Tonk.
There's no way to hide it: Lee is losing his hearing. Then Lee discovers sign language. And soon after, he meets Max, who plays the sax. Together they form a new band-the Deaf Musicians. But who will listen to a deaf musician?
With The Deaf Musicians, Pete Seeger, Paul DuBois Jacobs, and three-time Coretta Scott King Honor winner R. Gregory Christie present an inspiring story of overcoming obstacles, set to a jazzy score.
OO-AH, BE-DOOP, BE-DOOP, OO-AH, YEAH!
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Waiting for Normal
by Leslie ConnorAddie is waiting for normal. But Addie's mom has an all-or-nothing approach to life: a food fiesta or an empty pantry, jubilation or gloom, her way or no way. All or nothing never adds up to normal. All or nothing can't bring you all to home, which is exactly where Addie longs to be, with her half sisters, every day. In spite of life's twists and turns, Addie remains optimistic. Someday, maybe, she'll find normal.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
A Splash of Red
by Jen Bryant and Melissa SweetAs a child in the late 1800s, Horace Pippin loved to draw: He loved the feel of the charcoal as it slid across the floor. He loved looking at something in the room and making it come alive again in front of him. He drew pictures for his sisters, his classmates, his co-workers. Even during W.W.I, Horace filled his notebooks with drawings from the trenches . . . until he was shot. Upon his return home, Horace couldn't lift his right arm, and couldn't make any art. Slowly, with lots of practice, he regained use of his arm, until once again, he was able to paint--and paint, and paint! Soon, people--including the famous painter N. C. Wyeth--started noticing Horace's art, and before long, his paintings were displayed in galleries and museums across the country. Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet team up once again to share this inspiring story of a self-taught painter from humble beginnings who despite many obstacles, was ultimately able to do what he loved, and be recognized for who he was: an artist.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award and a Sibert Honor
The Pirate of Kindergarten
by George Ella LyonGinny was not born a pirate.
But since her birth she was headed in that direction. This book tells the story of Ginny's voyage toward earning herself an eye patch--a voyage made mostly at school.
No other kid there had the honor.
Words and pictures offer up a double helping of surprise on the subject of seeing.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Girls Like Us
by Gail GilesA 2015 Schneider Family Book Award Winner
With gentle humor and unflinching realism, Gail Giles tells the gritty, ultimately hopeful story of two special ed teenagers entering the adult world.
We understand stuff. We just learn it slow. And most of what we understand is that people what ain’t Speddies think we too stupid to get out our own way. And that makes me mad.
Quincy and Biddy are both graduates of their high school’s special ed program, but they couldn’t be more different: suspicious Quincy faces the world with her fists up, while gentle Biddy is frightened to step outside her front door. When they’re thrown together as roommates in their first "real world" apartment, it initially seems to be an uneasy fit. But as Biddy’s past resurfaces and Quincy faces a harrowing experience that no one should have to go through alone, the two of them realize that they might have more in common than they thought — and more important, that they might be able to help each other move forward.
Hard-hitting and compassionate, Girls Like Us is a story about growing up in a world that can be cruel, and finding the strength — and the support — to carry on.
Django
by Bonnie Christensen"When I think about the best guitar players ever, the first name that comes to mind is Django Reinhardt. No one has ever equaled his sound or techniques." - Willie Nelson
Born into extreme poverty in a gypsy encampment, Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) overcame tremendous obstacles, including a debilitating injury, to become the world's most acclaimed jazz guitarist.
Here, Bonnie Christensen tells his story with a haunting, rhythmic, jazz-inflected text and lush oil paintings that capture the spirit of both the man and his music.
Jazz Americain, [scanner's note this is cain not just can] jazz like Django--moving bending changing blending
Try that rhythm, stretch that measure, syncopation.
Twist that line.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Reaching for Sun
by Tracie Vaughn ZimmerJosie Wyatt knows what it means to be different. Her family's small farmhouse seems to shrink each time another mansion grows up behind it. She lives with her career-obsessed mom and opinionated Gran, but has never known her father. Then there's her cerebral palsy: even if Josie wants to forget that she was born with a disability, her mom can't seem to let it go. Yet when a strange new boy--Jordan--moves into one of the houses nearby, he seems oblivious to all the things that make Josie different. Before long, Josie finds herself reaching out for something she's never really known: a friend... and possibly more. Interlinked free verse poems tell the beautiful, heartfelt story of a girl, a family farm reduced to a garden, and a year of unforgettable growth.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Small Steps
by Louis SacharTwo years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is home in Austin, Texas, trying to turn his life around. But it's hard when you have a record, and everyone expects the worst from you. The only person who believes in him is Ginny, his 10-year old disabled neighbor. Together, they are learning to take small steps. And he seems to be on the right path, until X-Ray, a buddy from Camp Green Lake, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme. This leads to a chance encounter with teen pop sensation, Kaira DeLeon, and suddenly his life spins out of control, with only one thing for certain. He'll never be the same again.In his first major novel since Holes, critically acclaimed novelist Louis Sachar uses his signature wit combined with a unique blend of adventure and deeply felt characters to explore issues of race, the nature of celebrity, the invisible connections that determine a person's life, and what it takes to stay on course. Doing the right thing is never a wrong choice-but a small step in the right direction.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
My Pal, Victor / Mi Amigo, Víctor
by Diane Gonzales BertrandTwo Latino boys experience carefree friendship despite one boy's disability.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B
by Teresa TotenTwo-time Governor General's Award nominee Teresa Toten is back with a compulsively readable new book for teens!When Adam meets Robyn at a support group for kids coping with obsessive-compulsive disorder, he is drawn to her almost before he can take a breath. He's determined to protect and defend her--to play Batman to her Robyn--whatever the cost. But when you're fourteen and the everyday problems of dealing with divorced parents and step-siblings are supplemented by the challenges of OCD, it's hard to imagine yourself falling in love. How can you have a "normal" relationship when your life is so fraught with problems? And that's not even to mention the small matter of those threatening letters Adam's mother has started to receive . . .Teresa Toten sets some tough and topical issues against the backdrop of a traditional whodunit in this engaging new novel that readers will find hard to put down.
Winner of the Scheider Family Book Award
Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am
by Peter Lerangis and Harry MazerA soldier returns home from Iraq forever changed in this poignant and pivotal novel from award-winning authors-one a veteran.Ben lives a charmed life--effortlessly landing the lead in the high school musical, dating the prettiest girl in school. When he decides to enlist in the army, no one thinks he'll be in real danger. But his decision has devastating consequences: His convoy gets caught in an explosion, and Ben ends up in a coma for two months. When he wakes up, he doesn't know where he is--or remember anything about his old life. His family and friends mourn what they see as a loss, but Ben perseveres. And as he triumphs, readers will relate to this timely novel that pairs the action and adventure of the best war stories with the emotional elements of struggle and transformation.As an underage soldier in WWII, Henry Mazer has firsthand experience of what it means to be a young man in the military.
Things Not Seen
by Andrew ClementsBobby Phillips is your average fifteen-year-old boy. That is, until he wakes up one morning and can't see himself in the mirror. Not blind, not dreaming-Bobby is just plain invisible. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for Bobby's new condition and even his dad the physicist can't figure it out. For Bobby, that means no school, no friends, no life. He's a missing person.
Then he meets Alicia. She's blind, and Bobby can't resist talking to her, trusting her. But people are starting to wonder where Bobby is, and if he's even still alive. Bobby knows that his invisibility could have dangerous consequences for his family and that time is running out. He has to find out how to be seen again-before it's too late.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Rose Under Fire
by Elizabeth E. WeinRose Justice is a young pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. On her way back from a semi-secret flight in the waning days of the war, Rose is captured by the Germans and ends up in Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi women's concentration camp. There, she meets an unforgettable group of women, including a once glamorous and celebrated French detective novelist whose Jewish husband and three young sons have been killed; a resilient young girl who was a human guinea pig for Nazi doctors trying to learn how to treat German war wounds; and a Nachthexen, or Night Witch, a female fighter pilot and military ace for the Soviet air force. These damaged women must bond together to help each other survive. In this companion volume to the critically acclaimed novel Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein continues to explore themes of friendship and loyalty, right and wrong, and unwavering bravery in the face of indescribable evil.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Jerk, California
by Jonathan FriesenTwitch, Jerk, Freak--Sam Carrier has been called them all. Because of his Tourette's syndrome, Sam is in near constant motion with tics and twitches and verbal outbursts. So, of course, high school is nothing but torment. Forget friends; forget even hoping that beautiful, perfect Naomi will look his way. And home isn't much better with his domineering stepfather reminding him that the only person who was more useless than Sam was his dead father, Jack. But then an unexpected turn of events unearths the truth about his father. And suddenly Sam doesn't know who he is, or even where he'll go next. What he does know is that the only girl in the world who can make him happy and nervous at the same time is everywhere he turns . . . and he'd give anything just to be still.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award