3 Books Featuring BIPOC People With Disabilities

When it comes to literature featuring characters with disabilities, one thing we can all agree on is that this world is severely lacking books that speak on everyday topics featuring diverse protagonists and situations. Here are three recommendations for books that feature BIPOC characters with disabilities.

You’re Welcome Universe

Whitney Gardner

Teenager Julia finds a slur about her best friend on the wall of the Kingston School for the Deaf and covers it with graffiti. She is kicked out and sent to public schooling–where the students are much more audacious and cause her to become an outcast because of her disability. While she continues her graffiti work, she accidentally starts a vandal war with someone who is also keen on tagging the streets. This book includes BIPOC protagonists and touches on topics such as hearing impaired disabilities, LGBQT+ parental relationships, and learning English as a Second Language.

This Kid Can Fly: It's About Ability (NOT Disability)

Aaron Philip

14-year-old Aaron Philip writes a memoir on living with cerebral palsy, showing the positives and uplifting accomplishments he has achieved throughout his life. Born in the Caribbean, he and his family moved to the U.S. to get a diagnosis and understand why he was having mobility issues. This is where he discovered the truth. Although his family struggled with poverty while caring for his needs, he remained positive and even started doing art on Tumblr that illustrated the discrimination that he faced as a child. This book really showcases a glass-half-full attitude through such a young and bright boy in such a digestible way that even younger readers can enjoy it. It has themes of perseverance and features immigrant families, cerebral palsy disabilities, discrimination, and poverty.

A Time to Dance

Padma Venkatraman

This fiction novel written in verse stars our protagonist Veda, a dance prodigy in India, who goes through an accident that causes her leg to be amputated at the knee. Crushed but still full of determination, she continues to try and achieve her dreams despite the odds. It also features an introduction to the classic Indian dance: Bharatanatyam. This book carries themes of societal expectations, loss, and courage.

What books would you like recommended? What diverse characters would you like to see? Let us know in the comments.

Article edited by Lindsey Huddleston.