Special Collections
Middle Grade Novels Featuring Characters with Learning Disabilities
Description: Each novel in this collection is geared towards middle grade readers and features a characters with a learning disability, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, and dysgraphia. (Ages 8-12 or Grades 3-7) #kids #disability
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The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
by Leslie ConnorFrom the critically acclaimed author of Waiting for Normal and All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, Leslie Connor, comes a deeply poignant and beautifully crafted story about self-reliance, redemption, and hope.
Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason’s learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family’s orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can’t understand why Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about that day.
Both Mason and his new friend, tiny Calvin Chumsky, are relentlessly bullied by the other boys in their neighborhood, so they create an underground club space for themselves. When Calvin goes missing, Mason finds himself in trouble again. He’s desperate to figure out what happened to Calvin, and eventually, Benny.
But will anyone believe him?
Silent Days, Silent Dreams
by Allen SayJames Castle was born two months premature on September 25, 1899, on a farm in Garden Valley, Idaho. He was deaf, mute, autistic and probably dyslexic. He didn't walk until he was four; he would never learn to speak, write, read or use sign language.
Yet, today Castle's artwork hangs in major museums throughout the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art opened "James Castle: A Retrospective in 2008." The 2013 Venice Biennale included eleven works by Castle in the feature exhibition "The Encyclopedic Palace." And his reputation continues to grow.
Caldecott Medal winner Allen Say, author of the acclaimed memoir Drawing from Memory, takes readers through an imagined look at Castle's childhood, allows them to experience his emergence as an artist despite the overwhelming difficulties he faced, and ultimately reveals the triumphs that he would go on to achieve.
Winner of the 2018 Schneider Family Book Award (Young Children Book)
Niagara Falls, Or Does It?
by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver and Tim HeitzFor Hank, fourth grade does not start out on the right foot. First of all, he gets called to the principal's office on the very first day of school.
Then the first assignment his teacher gives him is to write five paragraphs on "What You Did This Summer." Hank is terrified-writing one good sentence is hard for him, so how in the world is he going to write five whole paragraphs? Hank comes up with a plan: instead of writing what he did on vacation, he'll show what he did. But when Hank's "living essay" becomes a living disaster, he finds himself in detention. Strangely enough, however, detention ends up becoming a turning point in his life
Lexile Level: 610L
The Junkyard Wonders
by Patricia PolaccoWhen young Trisha finds out her class at the new school is known as "The Junkyard," she is devastated.
She moved from her old town so she wouldn't be in a special class anymore! But then she meets her teacher, the quirky and invincible Mrs. Peterson, and her classmates, an oddly brilliant group of students each with his or her own unique talent. And it is here in The Junkyard that Trisha learns the true meaning of genius, and that this group of misfits are, in fact, wonders, all of them. Based on a real-life event in Patricia Polacco's childhood, this ode to teachers will inspire all readers to find their inner genius.
Dyslexia is My Superpower (Most of the Time)
by Margaret RookeIn more than 100 interviews, children and young adults reveal their personal tips and tactics for honing the creative benefits of dyslexia, enabling them to thrive in school and beyond. Strategies include ways to develop confidence and self-belief. The contributors have outlined specific approaches they feel have helped them, and others that haven't. The book contains stunning illustrations by 8-18 year olds with dyslexia.The first-hand accounts are inspiring in the way they normalise dyslexia and reveal the many success stories. There is an additional section for professionals who work in education or special learning environments, with advice given by school students themselves.
Freak the Mighty
by Rodman PhilbrickTwo boys - a slow learner stuck in the body of a teenage giant and a tiny Einstein in leg braces - forge a unique friendship when they pair up to create one formidable human force. (Made into the film, The Mighty. )
Eleven
by Patricia Reilly GiffSam is almost 11 when he discovers a locked box in the attic above his grandfather Mack's room, and a piece of paper that says he was kidnapped.
There are lots of other words, but Sam has always had trouble reading. He's desperate to find out who he is, and if his beloved Mack is really his grandfather. At night he's haunted by dreams of a big castle and a terrifying escape on a boat. Who can he trust to help him read the documents that could unravel the mystery?
Then he and the new girl, Caroline, are paired up to work on a school project, building a castle in Mack's woodworking shop. Caroline loves to read, and she can help. But she's moving soon, and the two must hurry to discover the truth about Sam.
The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates
by Susan ShreveJoshua is devastated to learn that he must repeat third grade. But he manages to survive the taunts of former classmates, learn something important about himself, and make it through the year with the help of a sympathetic teacher.
The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
by Roald DahlThe Reverend Robert Lee triumphed over dyslexia as a child. But when he becomes the new vicar of Nibbleswicke, that triumph turns to travesty. For his condition has not resurfaced in its old manner, but in a virulent and highly peculiar form. Without his even being aware of it, the most important words in the sentences he utters mysteriously turn themselves around and come out backwards. A vicar calling on the blessing of Dog Almighty? Drol help the good people of Nibbleswicke!
Once again Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake join forces, spinning a hilarious story of a most remarkable vicar, whose unusual solution to his problem is sure to amuse Dahl's many fans.
The Lightning Thief
by Rick RiordanPercy Jackson about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
Winner of Pacific Northwest Library Association’s Young Reader’s Choice Intermediate Award
Just Juice
by Karen HesseJuice lives with her Pa and Ma and her four sisters way out in the hills. Pa gets a letter saying the town has sold their house. But family has one last chance to pay back taxes they owe. Where will they ever find the money to get their house back?
After Ever After
by Jordan SonnenblickJeffrey isn't a little boy with cancer anymore. He's a teen who's in remission, but life still feels fragile. The aftereffects of treatment have left Jeffrey with an inability to be a great student or to walk without limping. His parents still worry about him. His older brother, Steven, lost it and took off to Africa to be in a drumming circle and "find himself." Jeffrey has a little soul searching to do, too, which begins with his escalating anger at Steven, an old friend who is keeping something secret, and a girl who is way out of his league but who thinks he's cute.
My Thirteenth Winter
by Samantha AbeelSamantha Abeel can't tell time, remember her locker combination, or count out change at a checkout counter and she's in seventh grade. For a straight-A student like Samantha, problems like these make no sense. She dreads school and begins having anxiety attacks. When in her thirteenth winter she's diagnosed with a learning disability, she discovers she's stronger than she ever thought possible.
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Chuck Close, Up Close
by Jan Greenberg and Sandra JordanA biography of the revisionist artist who achieved prominence in the late 1960s for enormous, photographically realistic, black and white portraits of himself and his friends.
Do Bananas Chew Gum?
by Jamie Gilson and Michael GarlandSam has made it most of the way through sixth grade, barely able to read and write, but now Sam's family have moved again and he is faced with the prospect of attending a new school. How long will he be able to keep his problem secret?
Adam Zigzag
by Barbara BarrieAdam Brody is a lucky kid -- he can sing and play the guitar; he's bright, popular, and good-looking. But none of these things can help Adam read. He's severely dyslexic. When he looks at a page, letters and numbers zigzag all over the place. This has been going on ever since he started school, but now that he's a teenager, he's getting desperate. So is his family. What will happen to him if he never learns to read?
May B.
by Caroline Starr RoseI've known it since last night:
It's been too long to expect them to return. Something's happened.
May is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead--just until Christmas, says Pa. She wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered sod house, isolated from family and neighbors, May must prepare for the oncoming winter. While fighting to survive, May's memories of her struggles with reading at school come back to haunt her. But she's determined to find her way home again.
Caroline Starr Rose's fast-paced novel, written in beautiful and riveting verse, gives readers a strong new heroine to love.
Snow Lane
by Josie AngeliniBy turns harrowing and heartbreaking, this middle-grade novel tells a story of a family of nine kids and one very dark secret.
Fifth grader Annie is just like every other girl in her small suburban town. Except she’s starting to realize that she isn’t. Annie is the youngest of nine children. Instead of being condemned to the bottom of the pecking order, she wants to carve out place for herself in the world. But it’s hard to find your destiny when the only thing you’re good at is being cheerful. Annie is learning that it’s difficult to be Annie, period, and not just because her clothes are worn-out hand-me-downs, and she suffers from a crippling case of dyslexia, but also because there are secrets in her life no one in her family is willing to face.
In Snow Lane, Josie Angelini presents a story about a resilient girl who, in spite of many hardships, can still find light in the darkest of places.
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.
Leslie Connor has created an inspiring novel about one girl's giant spirit.
Schneider Family Award Winner
Maggot Moon
by Sally Gardner and Julian CrouchWhat if the football hadn't gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn't want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell -- who has different-colored eyes, who can't read, can't write, Standish Treadwell isn't bright -- sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it's big...One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.
Thank You Mr. Falker
by Patricia PolaccoThe real-life, classic story of a dyslexic girl and the teacher who would not let her fail. A perfect gift for teachers and for reading students of any age.
Patricia Polacco is now one of America's most loved children's book creators, but once upon a time, she was a little girl named Trisha starting school. Trisha could paint and draw beautifully, but when she looked at words on a page, all she could see was jumble. It took a very special teacher to recognize little Trisha's dyslexia: Mr. Falker, who encouraged her to overcome her reading disability. Patricia Polacco will never forget him, and neither will we.
Fish in a Tree
by Lynda Mullaly HuntA New York Times Bestseller!
The author of the beloved One for the Murphys gives readers an emotionally-charged, uplifting novel that will speak to anyone who’s ever thought there was something wrong with them because they didn’t fit in.
“Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.”
Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there’s a lot more to her—and to everyone—than a label, and that great minds don’t always think alike.