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[CCBC-Net] Books About Disabilities-- Joey Pigza
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From: Polly Edwards <docpollyed>
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 07:46:50 -0700 (PDT)
I'm a child psychologist re-training to be a librarian. In 20 years of practice, I've seen hundreds of children diagnosed with ADHD. Yes, Joey Pigza is a joy! I keep one of the books prominently displayed in my office. The ability to lighten up and laugh a little is so important for the children and their families lliving with ADHD. Just last week, I was recommending the books to one of the "Joey's" I'm seeing right now.
I am so thankful for Jack Gantos and others who write good literature about children with disabilities. Catalogues come my way featuring so called "therapeutic books" for children with disabilities that are so poorly written I wouldn't think of using them.
When researching for a brief paper on bibliotherapy last year, I found a great resource, Bibliotherapy with Young People: Librarians and Mental Health Professionals Working Together (Doll & Doll,Libraries Unlimited, 1997). The authors (one a librarian and one a psychologist) point out that mental health professionals know very little about locating, evaluating, and choosing quality media resources for children. We need librarians to help us!
On another note, I've seen comments about how some books featuring disabled characters don't present a realistic or "typical" picture of the disability. We certainly don't want to endorse books that are blatantly misleading. Howoever, with ADHD as an example, I can say that there are many different clinical presentations of the disorder (e.e, some spacey, some hyper, some highly disorganzied). I think it's also important to remember that children with disabilities are still individuals with lots of other defining characteristics and behaviors. Some children with disabilities can be sweet and caring, others can be cranky and mean--the same can be said of children without disabilities! And depending on the day or the moment, the same child can be all of the above. Some children with ADHD have highly dysfunctional families, others function quite well under the circumstances. Some parents choose medication for their children and others don't. I don't think there's one "right"
way to present these children and their stories.
Although we need books that present stories where the disability figures prominently, I couldn't agree more with the notion that we also need books depicting children whose disability is in the background, just one of many defining characteristics. After all, can any of us truly say we are "perfectly healthy and whole"? We are all living with a disability of sorts--some are just more prominent than others...
Polly Edwards
Birmingham, AL
--------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1?/min.
Received on Fri 13 Oct 2006 09:46:50 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 07:46:50 -0700 (PDT)
I'm a child psychologist re-training to be a librarian. In 20 years of practice, I've seen hundreds of children diagnosed with ADHD. Yes, Joey Pigza is a joy! I keep one of the books prominently displayed in my office. The ability to lighten up and laugh a little is so important for the children and their families lliving with ADHD. Just last week, I was recommending the books to one of the "Joey's" I'm seeing right now.
I am so thankful for Jack Gantos and others who write good literature about children with disabilities. Catalogues come my way featuring so called "therapeutic books" for children with disabilities that are so poorly written I wouldn't think of using them.
When researching for a brief paper on bibliotherapy last year, I found a great resource, Bibliotherapy with Young People: Librarians and Mental Health Professionals Working Together (Doll & Doll,Libraries Unlimited, 1997). The authors (one a librarian and one a psychologist) point out that mental health professionals know very little about locating, evaluating, and choosing quality media resources for children. We need librarians to help us!
On another note, I've seen comments about how some books featuring disabled characters don't present a realistic or "typical" picture of the disability. We certainly don't want to endorse books that are blatantly misleading. Howoever, with ADHD as an example, I can say that there are many different clinical presentations of the disorder (e.e, some spacey, some hyper, some highly disorganzied). I think it's also important to remember that children with disabilities are still individuals with lots of other defining characteristics and behaviors. Some children with disabilities can be sweet and caring, others can be cranky and mean--the same can be said of children without disabilities! And depending on the day or the moment, the same child can be all of the above. Some children with ADHD have highly dysfunctional families, others function quite well under the circumstances. Some parents choose medication for their children and others don't. I don't think there's one "right"
way to present these children and their stories.
Although we need books that present stories where the disability figures prominently, I couldn't agree more with the notion that we also need books depicting children whose disability is in the background, just one of many defining characteristics. After all, can any of us truly say we are "perfectly healthy and whole"? We are all living with a disability of sorts--some are just more prominent than others...
Polly Edwards
Birmingham, AL
--------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1?/min.
Received on Fri 13 Oct 2006 09:46:50 AM CDT
