Top Ten Books That Feature Characters Who Have Disabilities

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

I'm still busy KonMari-ing, which has made blogging and reading a lower priority for the moment. But I'm back this week to share some great books that feature characters who have physical or intellectual disabilities.

1. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure's father doesn't believe that her blindness should limit where she can go and what she can do, so he builds her a miniature model of their town so she can learn her way around. When he's taken away during World War II, Marie-Laure has the courage not only to survive but also to do her part for France in the war.

2. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Tin Win is blind and Mi Mi cannot use her legs, but once they find each other, they are unstoppable. The plot construction isn't the best, but I loved the writing so much I would still recommend the book.

3. The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (pseudonym)
Detective Cormoran Strike lost a leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, which we're reminded of approximately a hundred times in each book. Still, I appreciate that Rowling doesn't shy away from the realistic descriptions of what running after suspects does to Strike's stump in his prosthetic, and the books are great mysteries.

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Cancer hits each character in this book in a different way: For main character Hazel, it hinders her breathing, while Gus lost a leg and Isaac loses his second eye in the course of the book. They navigate these challenges in a realistic way that manages to neither inspire pity nor serve as inspiration porn.

5. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Charlie is an intellectually challenged man who has the opportunity to take part in an experiment to increase his IQ. As his intelligence accelerates, he finds that being smart isn't the most important thing in life and may actually leave him worse off.

6. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The parents and circus owners in this book took matters into their own hands when it came to creating the "freaks" for their sideshow, by conceiving and birthing them themselves after taking various combinations of chemicals. But Arty, whose flipper-like appendages require him to get around in a wheelchair, is no object of pity, particularly after he becomes the leader of a cult of people who get parts of their body amputated in hopes of becoming more like him.

7. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
When a doctor delivers his own twins and sees that the girl has Down's Syndrome, he hands her off to the nurse and tells his wife the baby died. We see not only the repercussions this "death" has on his own family, but also how the nurse raises the girl as her own daughter in this character-driven novel.

8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
This book follows the story of two migrant workers, one of whom is a large, intellectually challenged man who doesn't know his own strength, something that eventually gets him into trouble.

9. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
My favorite character in this book of a minister who takes his family to live in the Congo is Adah, who was born with a condition (hemiplegia) that makes one side of her body weaker than the other, so she has to drag one leg as she walks. She's the most clever and least irritating of the sisters in the family, who all struggle in their own way to adapt to their new life in Africa.

10. Rules by Cynthia Lord
Although Catherine loves her autistic brother and tries to help him navigate the world, he's also an embarrassment to her because of his lack of understanding of social rules. Then she meets Jason, a paraplegic boy her own age who communicates by pointing at cards. As she gets to know him better, she fears that she'll be judged for being friends with him, especially by Kristi, the cool girl who's moved in next door. This is a good middle-grade novel for discussing how society views people with disabilities.


What are some of your favorite books that feature characters with disabilities?

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