Special Collections
YA Featuring Characters with a Visual Impairment
Description: Check out this collection of young adult novels featuring characters with visual impairments. (These books are suitable for readers ages 13 and up or in grades 8 and up.) #teens #disability
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She Is Not Invisible
by Marcus SedgwickPrize-winning author Marcus Sedgwick explores obsession, trust and coincidence in this page-turning thriller about 16-year-old Laureth Peak's mission to find her missing father. A mission made all the more difficult by one fact: Laureth Peak is blind.Laureth's father is a writer. For years he's been trying, and failing, to write a novel about coincidence. His wife thinks he's obsessed. Laureth thinks he's on the verge of a breakdown. He's supposed to be doing research in Austria, so when his notebook shows up in New York, Laureth knows something is wrong.On impulse, she steals her mother's credit card and heads for the States, taking her strange little brother Benjamin with her. Reunited with the notebook, they begin to follow clues inside, trying to find their wayward father. But the challenges and threats that lie ahead are even tougher for Laureth than they would be for any other teenager - because Laureth has no vision to guide her.Also available as an audio book, read from braille by Anna Cannings.
The Schwa was Here
by Neal ShustermanThey say his clothes blend into the background, no matter where he stands. They say a lot of things about the Schwa, but one thing's for sure: no one ever noticed him. Except me.
My name is Antsy Bonano, and I was the one who realized the Schwa was "functionally invisible" and used him to make some big bucks. But I was also the one who caused him more grief than a friend should.
So if you all just shut up and listen, I'll tell you everything there is to know about the Schwa, from how he got his name, to what really happened with his mom. I'll spill everything. Unless, of course, "the Schwa Effect" wipes him out of my brain before I'm done....
Golden Boy
by Tara SullivanThirteen-year-old Habo has always been different--light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. Not the good brown skin his family has and not the white skin of tourists. Habo is strange and alone. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him. His brothers are cruel and the other children never invite him to play. Only his sister Asu loves him well. But even Asu can't take the sting away when the family is forced from their small Tanzanian village, and Habo knows he is to blame. Seeking refuge in Mwanza, Habo and his family journey across the Serengeti. His aunt is glad to open her home until she sees Habo for the first time, and then she is only afraid. Suddenly, Habo has a new word for himself: Albino. But they hunt Albinos in Mwanza because Albino body parts are thought to bring good luck. And soon Habo is being hunted by a fearsome man with a machete. To survive, Habo must not only run, but find a way to love and accept himself. Note: Glossary and Resources are included at the end of the book.
Love and First Sight
by Josh SundquistIn his debut novel, YouTube personality and author of We Should Hang Out Sometime Josh Sundquist explores the nature of love, trust, and romantic attraction.
On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right? As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a charming, quiet girl named Cecily.
Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life. But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets.
It turns out Cecily doesn't meet traditional definitions of beauty--in fact, everything he'd heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together. Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?
Told with humor and breathtaking poignancy, Love and First Sight is a story about how we related to each other and the world around us.
Outside Myself
by Kristen WituckiExtraordinary insight into living without sight Outside Myself will enlighten both young and old.