Book of the month

Arnold Spirit Jr (known as Junior) is a 14-year-old Native American living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Born with too much cerebro-spinal fluid in his skull, he is philosophical in his descriptions of both the physical impact (which include a larger than average head and feet, extra teeth and a speech impediment) and the objectionable treatment he receives (which includes routine verbal and physical abuse by his peers). The book follows him as he chooses to leave the familiarity and comparative security of the rez in favour of a far more hostile setting - an all-white school. It’s a decision...

How are you feeling today? Happy? Sad? Exited? Bored? Interested? Angry? Upset? Spread by spread, this warm-hearted and entertaining picture book explores a whole range of different feelings and emotions that children might experience - from loneliness and fear to silliness and happiness - in both family and school settings. The final page, 'Feeling Better', encourages children to think about and share how they feel.Mary Hoffman's simple, sensitive text provides an engaging way into thinking and talking about our feelings, whilst Ros Asquith's wild and witty illustrations brilliantly convey each of the different emotions discussed. Young readers can be encouraged...

Freddie is delighted when a fairy he rescues offers to grant him his every wish. Although the fairy explains that she can't hear very well, Freddie launches into a series of excited wishes for different pets. However he finds that his mumbled requests generate a succession of unusual and unexpected creatures. Freddie quickly becomes frustrated by her apparent inability to grant his wishes. Luckily the Fairy Queen appears to help him understand that it isn’t the little fairy who is causing the problems – it is Freddie who needs to make some simple changes. With attractive illustrations by Karen George,...

Like his desk, Frankie likes life to be orderly and neat. Order generally keeps his anxieties at bay, as do his nightly 10pm conversations with Ma and the daily rituals he shares with best friend Gigs (cricket ace, Fimo modeller supreme). But then Sydney arrives. With her exuberant clothes, dreadlocks, and constant questions, Sydney subtly disturbs Frankie's carefully organised world, forcing him to ask a hitherto unspoken 10pm question - and ultimately face up to the link between his mother's condition and his own bouts of worry and hypochondria. This novel dwells on the tender ordinariness of daily life –...

Being inclusive isn’t only about featuring disabled characters as heroes and protagonists, but also about simply including disability as part of the natural landscape of children’s books. This lovely book is one of many by Child’s Play, undeniable experts in creating delightful early years books which reflect the true diversity of society in a natural and uncontrived way. In this particular example, the cast of lively little characters happens to include a child with a hearing aid and another using a wheelchair (shown playing both in and out of her wheelchair). It is one of a series of interactive ‘books...

Kleber is 17 years old and at sixth form college in Paris. He’s trying to secure himself a place in a shared flat, but things are complicated by the fact that he is bringing his elder brother who has learning difficulties. Barnaby (known as ‘Simple’) is 22. While their self-interested father wants to return Simple to a gloomy institution by the name of Malicroix, Kleber is determined to try to provide his brother with the life he feels he deserves, despite the challenges both will face on the journey towards independence. So the book sees them move into a chaotic...

Kara is isolated and lonely, bullied at school for her dyslexia, and struggling to deal with her mother's mysterious disappearance. Her one escape is taking to the waves in her father's boat, Moana - but things hit rock bottom when she realises that her father, who is struggling to find work, may be forced to sell his beloved sailing boat. Meanwhile, Felix resents his wealthy, well-meaning parents for taking him to live in a sleepy Cornish fishing village, far away from his home and friends London, but things change when he discovers a passion for sailing. Kara and Felix take...

In an alternate 1950s, Standish Treadwell is growing up in a Britain dominated by the dark, ruthlessly oppressive forces of The Motherland. Life is hard, but Standish struggles onwards - until his best and only friend Hector is taken away from him, and events take a new and more dangerous turn. Gradually, Standish comes to realise that it is down to him and his grandfather, together with a small band of rebels, to make a stand against The Motherland. In a desperate effort to protect the people he loves, Standish sets out on a heroic mission to expose the truth...

Mikey’s life changed following an injury to his head when he was very young. Now aged fourteen, he lives in a confusion of half-remembered events from a dark and shadowy past, and is consoled primarily by his faithful dog Timmer. An unusual side effect of his obvious difficulties is the ‘Backwards’ - an ability to witness past events – even those at which he was not present. When he finds a dead body near the river, his gift becomes the key to unlocking the mysteries of the past and to saving him from dangerous friends and a blighted future. Mikey’s...

Fifteen year old Demi is starting a new school – always a nerve-racking experience. However, for Demi, it represents a time of far more dramatic change, as her new school is a college for deaf students, a recent case of Meningitis having left her profoundly deaf. The book follows her transition into a new school but also a new life – and it is far from easy. The impact of her sudden loss of hearing is still painfully raw. Demi feels isolated, adrift, angry, and completely unsure of her identity. Relationships with her friends, family, the opposite sex and even...

In the month of the Diamond Jubilee, Giles Andreae and Tony Ross present a timely insight into the Queen's day to day life at Buckingham Palace. We discover that her private quarters are actually rather 'homely', with peeling wallpaper and a pile of Royal underwear waiting to be ironed. She has a fondness for eating baked beans (with unfortunate repercussions), watching wrestling and working out to 1970s disco tracks. Oh, and on Fridays, she sports very fetching knickers with dogs on them. If this is all starting to sound slightly improbable, it could well be due to the fact that...

The first day at a new school is always daunting, particularly when one is at that unenviable pre-teen age when so much seems to revolve around who is sitting with whom at lunchtime. For ten-year-old August ('Auggie'), the level of the challenge is acutely more profound. For one thing, he has only ever been home-educated, so must acclimatise to the whole concept of going to school. For another, Auggie has a facial disfiguration, and of the most severe kind. It invokes widespread reactions of shock, suspicion and fear, and those around him behave in ways that are sometimes thoughtless and...

Sam and Ruby have a lot in common. They are both bright, but find school tedious and are permanently in trouble, albeit for very different reasons. Whilst Sam can be found using his computing prowess to play practical jokes on the staff, Ruby spends lessons playing with her mobile and inspecting her make-up. The headteacher has had enough and gives them one last chance to prove themselves, or else lose their places on the much-anticipated end-of-term trip. Their mission? To create an Olympic-themed project and present it at assembly. It’s an assignment which does not go down well at first....

When Toby’s sister Clemmie is unwell, she has to go and stay in hospital. So, together, they find a string of ways to make the experience as fun as possible – from exploring the playroom and making friends with other children to sailing to distant lands on her hospital bed. Best of all, the family has an excuse for a great party when Clemmie comes home. This book is a follow-up to Elliott’s first book about the relationship between Toby and his disabled older sister, Just Because. This time, Toby and Clemmie ably illustrate how hospitals need not be feared,...

A high school shooting has left a small American town devastated. Caitlin’s brother Devon was one of victims of the tragedy. In addition to coming to terms with the death of her beloved brother, Caitlin must understand her father’s response to the loss and grapple with the well-meaning efforts of various teachers, relatives and counsellors. Caitlin has Asperger’s Syndrome, and the world around her can often seem like a minefield of discrepancies and ambiguities. She just wishes people could be more like books – where the words and pictures stay the same, no how many times you open and close...

Mia loves nothing better than spending time with Uncle Robbie. He has an infinite knack for coming up with fun things to do. He builds her a puppet theatre, creates treasure hunts and even entertains her by making an egg appear from her ear and handkerchiefs change colour. And it is Robbie’s flair as a conjurer which proves invaluable when Mia wants to learn a new skill for the school end of year talent show. Then Mia doesn’t hear from him for a while. She misses her uncle and writes to ask him to come and perform a magic show...

A young man heads to New York with ambitions of becoming a private detective. Modelling himself on his hero (a comic book private eye), Trueman Bradley sets up an office and opens for business, only to find the Big Apple is rather less hospitable than he had pictured. Plus, nobody seems to take his abilities as an aspiring detective the least bit seriously. Trueman has Aspergers Syndrome, which results in a succession of confusing and confrontational encounters, as he tries to make sense of the constant stream of idioms and social niceties. People in turn struggle to understand his unconventional...

The Great Big Book of Families is not ‘about’ disability, but rather about the diversity of families. The simple message is that every family is unique and special. This message is delivered effectively through simple, accessible text and an abundance of delightful,cartoon-like illustrations. Subtle inclusive images of disability are scattered throughout. These include several wheelchairs, lots of glasses, leg braces, and a walker. It’s a book packed with detail, humour and interest, reminding us that there is no such thing as ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’ – we are all equal. In terms of diversity in its widest sense, books simply don’t...

This is a quirky and entertaining read. Translated from German, it is the story of two misfit boys who find friendship as they set out to solve a very unusual mystery. The reader is drawn in right from the start, when the narrator Rico is intrigued to find a small piece of pasta on the pavement. This leads him to uncover the truth behind all manner of strange goings-on in his neighbourhood, including a local kidnapping plot. Rico is mildly autistic and his friend Oscar is gifted and anxiety-ridden, and both are enormously likable. Any young reader will fall in...

This uplifting book focuses on a sibling relationship, as a little boy affectionately describes his older sister. Both children are very three-dimensional and eminently likeable. Clemmie is severely disabled, but there is no sense of pity or pathos about the book, rather a feeling of equality and mutual appreciation and respect. All the things she cannot do (such as walking or talking) are described matter-of-factly alongside the fact that she can’t cook macaroni or pilot a plane either. To Toby, she is definitely the best sister in the world – she’s kind, she doesn’t eat his crayons and she never...