My Favorite Books with Disability Representation

Hey guys! Today I’m going to share with you some of my favorite books with disabled characters in them to celebrate Disability Pride Month, which occurs every July to mark the passing of the ADA on July 26, 1990. Disability Pride Month’s purpose is to empower individuals with disabilities and encourage everyone to be more inclusive. However, I’ve noticed that the online bookish community (bookstagram, booktok, book blogs, etc.) doesn’t usually lift up disabled authors and books with characters with disabilities like they do other diverse books.

This is an unfortunate trend that I would like to see reversed, which is why I’ve decided to share some of my favorite books that feature disabled characters with you today. I am not a member of the disability community, so I can’t speak for the quality of representation in these books; however, many of the books I’ve included in this list are Own Voices books, meaning the author of them are from the same minority group as the characters they’re writing about. I’ve also looked at what members of the disability community thought of the representation in each book.

Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo

Criminal prodigy and unofficial leader of the Dregs, Kaz Brekker must bring together a band of convicts to try to accomplish an impossible heist: breaking into The Ice Court, a Fierdan government facility that is incredibly secure. Kaz gains the help of five teenage outcasts with criminal backgrounds to help him. They just have to keep from killing each other before they can pull off the heist. And they do have to pull off the heist. After all, the fate of their world relies on them.

This book has amazing disability representation. One of the main characters, Kaz, has a limp and uses a cane, yet he’s in charge of pulling off a historic heist. He’s super badass, not despite his disability, but because of it. He is made stronger because of his disability. There is also a main character with dyslexia that is very well written too.

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews

Sam’s only fifteen, but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have already been abandoned by all of their known relatives. To survive, Sam breaks into people’s houses while they’re away on vacation. He hopes to save up enough money to buy a house for his brother and him, but that dream seems to be getting more and more distant. One day, he wakes up to find that the family that owns the house he’s staying in has returned while he was sleeping.

Luckily, the large family doesn’t find his presence unusual at all. They all assume he’s a different sibling’s friend that came over. The family eventually takes Sam under their wing and he falls for Moxie, a girl in the family that’s his age. However, Sam can’t hide his secrets from the family forever. Eventually, he’ll have a lot of explaining to do.

Avery’s autism is represented very well in The Boy Who Steals Houses. His autism wasn’t a major plot point or anything. It was just part of who Avery was, which I really appreciated. Too often, characters only have disabilities if it moves the story forward in some way. It’s like people think if a character’s disability can’t be turned into a problem to be solved, what’s the point of giving them one.

The Thing with Feathers by McCall Hoyle

Emilie’s comfortable with the way things are: she’s homeschooled and her best (and only) friend is her seizure dog. But Emilie’s mom just has to mess everything up by enrolling her in public school. Sure, she meets a cute boy who’s she’s paired with for an English project, and yeah, maybe high school isn’t the worst, but it will be. It will be when her classmates find out about her epilepsy. Emilie’s terrified of seizing at school and what her classmates would think of her if they knew about her epilepsy.

The epilepsy representation in this book was really great. I didn’t know much about epilepsy going into this read, and it was very informative. Additionally, it was a very emotional, beautiful read. I loved how Emilie was a realistic, fully-fledged character. Her epilepsy was a part of her, but it wasn’t all of her.

At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

The teens staying at Hope Juvenile Treatment Center are anything but hopeful. Society’s given up on them, locked them away from the rest of the world. One day, the guards begin acting strange. A bit later, they stop coming to work entirely. The teens band together and discover that a deadly virus is spreading outside the gates of Hope, and no one can leave their houses without a permit. The teens at Hope have been left to fend for themselves. Will they survive?

At the End of Everything also has an autistic main character. The character, Logan, is nonverbal. She communicates with her twin sister, Leah, through a sign language they created as kids. However, when Leah gets sick with the deadly virus, she has to quarantine and Logan struggles to communicate with the other teens. None of them ever bothered to learn the twins’ sign language or put in effort into getting to know Logan before. They’ve mainly just thought of her as Leah’s sister. Eventually, they realize that Logan is her own person and they should have made an effort earlier.

Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz

Isabel has one rule and it’s that she doesn’t date. It’s easier—safer—that way. She has rheumatoid arthritis, which just makes things like dating too complicated. But then she meets another sick kid. Sasha has a chronic illness that Isabel’s never heard of and has no clue how to pronounce. He understands her like her healthy friends never have. He understands her better than her own father and he’s a doctor. And he’s totally into her. So, maybe Isabel could break her rule for him.

Isabel has rheumatoid arthritis and Sasha has Gaucher Disease. Throughout the book, Isabel learns a lot from Sasha about advocating for herself. Additionally, it says right on the cover of the book “They don’t die in this one.” which highlights how every book about chronic illnesses seems to end in tragedy. This one does have emotional parts, but its also funny and heartwarming and romantic.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

Norah’s world is confined to the four walls of her house. The world outside is too big, too dangerous. So she stays inside, watching the outside world go by through windows and TV screens. Her new neighbor, Luke, doesn’t see her as a medical diagnosis though. He doesn’t see her as broken. As their relationship grows, Norah begins to feel guilty. Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can kiss him, or at least walk outside with him. Can Norah be the girl Luke deserves, or should she just let him go?

The agoraphobia representation in this book feels so authentic. Norah really feels like a real person. I also appreciated that while Luke encourages Norah to grow and overcome her mental illness, he doesn’t “fix” her. Like, their relationship isn’t a cure for her. Mentally ill character being miraculously cured by being in a romantic relationship is a common trope in young adult books and it just isn’t realistic. I appreciated that this book didn’t do this. Instead of Norah getting “fixed” by the end of the book, Luke accepts Norah for who she is. He accepts that her agoraphobia may always be a part of her but also that she is so much more than her mental illness.

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I hope you enjoyed reading about these book recommendations and maybe found some new books to add to your TBR. This post was really special to me because I’m going to be at a Best Buddies Leadership Camp for the next few days. (I’m going to be my chapter’s president in the fall.) If you have any book recommendations with disability representation, I would love to add them to my own TBR, so please comment about them down below. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this post. As always, I hope this post finds you well and you’re having a great day!