YA Disability Pride Month

A list of books and graphic novels that portray and celebrate teen characters with disabilities.


Compiled by:
Tyana H., Fern S.

Olivia A. Cole
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Cole)

Ariel grapples with her fear of her own mind and violent fantasies, driven by her desire to meet her parents' expectations and societal norms. Until a summer job at a carnival leads her to new friends who help her discover her struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.



Natalia Sylvester
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Sylvest)

Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability. The best form of rehabilitation is swimming, so she spends hours in the pool, but not just to strengthen her body. Verónica wants to audition for Mermaid Cove, an attraction where professional mermaids perform in giant tanks.



Abbey Lee Nash
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Nash)

Competitive swimmer Tess Cooper grapples with the upheaval of her carefully planned future following an epilepsy diagnosis, and works to get back in the pool despite her doctor's advice or her distracting feelings for the new guy.



Bethany Mangle
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Mangle)

After an incident leads to her suspension, Brynn's high school persona that hides her secret disability is shattered, and she begins embracing her true self on her journey to self-acceptance.



Karol Ruth Silverstein
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Silvers)

Ricky struggles with her recent juvenile inflammatory disease diagnosis, which comes amid family upheaval and challenges at school.



Emily Ladau
(Adult Nonfiction - 305.908 Lad)

A guide for how to be a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more accessible place.



Gretchen Schreiber
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Schreib)

Ellie, a high schooler with a rare genetic condition, navigates the divide between her "hospital-life" and "home-life," as a hospital stay brings her closer to Ryan, who challenges her perspective and makes her consider the extraordinary possibilities of her life.



Ariel Henley
(Adult Nonfiction - 921 Henley Hen)

At only eight months old, identical twin sisters Ariel and Zan were diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome, a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. While the physical aspect of their condition was painful, it was nothing compared to the emotional toll of navigating life with a facial disfigurement.



Mariama J. Lockington
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Locking)

When Sadie, a Black bisexual recluse, develops agoraphobia the summer before her junior year, she relies on her best friend, family, and therapist to overcome her fears.



Elise Bryant
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bryant)

Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She's rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she's a true leading lady is in her own writing--in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader.



Anna-Marie McLemore
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Mclemor)

Two non-binary teens are pulled into a magical world under a lake⁠, but can they keep their worlds above water intact?



S.K. Ali
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Ali)

Adam and Zayneb meet in Doha, Qatar, during spring break and fall in love as both struggle to find a way to live their own truths.



Maya MacGregor
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Macgreg)

An autistic nonbinary teen moves to a new town and school with the support of their loving father and finds friends in an LGBTQ+ club, but they all must come together to solve the decades-old murder of a teenage boy and confront the demons lurking in Sam's past.



Lillie Lainoff
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Lainoff)

In 1655, Tania is the daughter of a retired musketeer, but she is afflicted with extreme vertigo and subject to frequent falls. When her father is murdered, she finds that he has arranged for her to attend Académie des Mariées in Paris, which is less a school for would-be wives, than a fencing academy for girls.



Karen Bao
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bao)

When Ver and Aryl, rival apprentices at the biology lab in the Pangu Star System, become the prime suspects in their teacher's murder, they reluctantly team up to find the real culprit, running up against system-wide inequalities and conspiracies along the way.



Carly Heath
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Heath)

It is 1904 and the partially deaf Asta Hedstrom is engaged to Nils, but she does not want to marry him: she would rather spend her time with her best friend Gunnar Fuglestad and his secret boyfriend, Erlend.



Keah Brown
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Brown)

Last summer, Andrea Williams spent all her time in bed, recuperating from the latest surgery for her cerebral palsy. This summer she plans to live it up-- and part of that means falling out of love with her best friend, Hailee.



Hannah Moskowitz
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Moskowi)

Isabel has one rule: no dating. It's easier-it's safer-it's better-for the other person. She's got rheumatoid arthritis. But then she meets another sick kid. He understands what it means to be sick.



Alison Gervais
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Gervais)

After moving to Colorado, deaf seventeen-year-old Maya is forced to attend a hearing school, where she must navigate a new life and prove that her lack of hearing will not stop her from pursuing her dreams.



Jackie Khalilieh
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Khalili)

Jessie is diagnosed as autistic just weeks before starting high school. Determined to make a fresh start and keep her diagnosis a secret, Jessie creates a list of goals. But she gets more than she bargained for when two very different boys steal her heart, forcing her to go off-script. 



Padma Venkatraman
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Venkatr)

In India, a girl who excels at Bharatanatyam dance refuses to give up after losing a leg in an accident.



Marieke Nijkamp
- Editor
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Unbroke)

An anthology of stories in various genres, each featuring disabled characters and written by disabled creators.



Hanna Alkaf
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Hannaal)

Amidst the Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, sixteen-year-old Melati must overcome prejudice, violence, and her own OCD to find her way back to her mother.



Claire Forrest
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Forrest)

Effie Galanos' goals for her senior year include her navigating her way through her high school that is not really wheelchair-friendly, getting into the perfect college, and getting her crush Wilder to accompany her to the prom--but by spring she is beginning to see herself entirely differently.


 
Graphic Novels

Faith Erin Hicks
(Juvenile Graphic Novels - J-GN Avatar The Last Airbender Toph Beifongs Metalbending Academy)

Things are looking bright at the Beifong Metalbending Academy! But after all the adventures Toph's had with Aang, Sokka, Zuko, and Katara, the whole thing feels a bit dull. Luckily, Sokka and Suki come to visit and reintroduce some familiar faces from their wandering days. And while out and about to celebrate, Toph discovers something that just might put the sparkle back in her eye...



Cece Bell
(Juvenile Graphic Novels - J-GN 741.5092 Bell Bel)

Starting a new school is scary, even more so with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest. At her old school, everyone in Cece's class was deaf. Here she is different. Cece makes a startling discovery. With the Phonic Ear she can hear her teacher not just in the classroom, but anywhere her teacher is in the school. This is power, maybe even superpower. Cece is on her way to becoming El Deafo, listener for all.



ND Stevenson
(Graphic Novels - GN 741.5092 Stevenson Ste)

In a collection of personal comics that span eight years of her young adult life, author-illustrator ND Stevenson charts the highs and lows of being a creative human in the world.



Tomohito Oda
(Manga- MANGA Komican v. 1 Oda)

Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi would love to make friends, but her shyness is interpreted as reserve, and the other students keep her at a distance.



Marieke Nijkamp
(Graphic Novels - GN Nijkamp Oracle Code)

After a gunshot leaves her paralyzed, Barbara Gordon enters the Arkham Center for Independence, where Gotham's teens undergo physical and mental rehabilitation. Now using a wheelchair, Barbara must adapt to a new normal, but she cannot shake the feeling that something is dangerously amiss.



Shūzō Oshimi
(Manga - MANGA Shinoca Oshimi)

High school can be a stressful time for many young people, unfortunately, things go wrong on Shino's first day, she fails to even say her name during her homeroom introduction. Ostracized and afraid she struggles to find her place in this new world.