“Poor little things” and “Brave little souls”: The portrayal of individuals with disabilities in children's literature

Abstract A collection of 59 books for young children portraying characters with disabilities were reviewed to determine their literary quality and the extent to which the story line and characters mirror the educational and demographic trends in our society. The results indicate a rise in the overall number of books being published and a greater diversity of disabilities being portrayed in recent publications. However, few books contained ethnically diverse characters, few were in languages other than English, and all placed little or no emphasis on specific cultural practices. Considering the cultural and linguistic diversity of our public schools, the limited number of children's books representing multiethnic characters with disabilities reflects a tremendous imbalance in this literature base.