Lists

Paralympic Games Inspired Booklist

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I am a huge fan of the Paralympics – historically hosted a few short weeks about the Olympic games in the same host city, the Paralympics are the world’s greatest athletes with disabilities who come together to compete.  For those of you who don’t know too much about the Paralympics, I’ll give you just a few facts:

  • The Paralympic Games are primarily for athletes with physical disabilities (except deaf or hearing impaired athletes) including but not limited to vision impairments, dwarfism, disabilities that affect muscle power (spina bifida, paraplegia, etc.), amputation and more.
  • Many people confuse the Paralympics and the Special Olympics – specifically for athletes with intellectual disabilities.  As I said previously, the deaf actually have created their own Deaflympics for elite athletes.
  • In 2012, the Paralympics invited athletes with intellectual disabilities to compete (which I wasn’t aware of), in a few select areas.
  • You won’t likely see much coverage on television, but check out Team USA for updates and check YouTube for live streaming of events as well as recorded coverage.

The booklist I created focuses on disabilities you would see during the Paralympic Games. I focused specifically on physical disabilities but could have also included intellectual disabilities as well.  I also tried to include some sports books, but I wanted to have a wide-range including fantasy/science fiction, historical fiction, and a few biographies as well.  

Caveat: I’ve included what the book description/review says is each character’s disability, so they may not be all politically correct as some are historically based and there may be new ways to understand or describe each character’s situation.  Enjoy!

  1. Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson (born with a deformed leg)
  2. Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Runner by Kathleen Krull (paralysis from polio)
  3. Ya Sama! Moments from My Life by Tatyana McFadden (spina bifida)
  4. Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell (crippled foot)
  5. Jepp, Who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh (dwarfism)
  6. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier (blindness and visual impairment)
  7. The Iron Trial by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare (limp)
  8. One-Handed Catch by MJ Auch (amputation)
  9. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (clubfoot)
  10. Shot in the Dark by Janet M. Whyte (blindness and visual impairment)
  11. The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff (dwarfism)
  12. The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen (amputation)
  13. Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (cerebral palsy)
  14. A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman (amputation)
  15. Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (cerebral palsy)

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  • Michele

    Fantastic round up of books! I hope many see this and put some books like these together for kids to check out!
    My daughter participates in national Paralympic swimming events. She has goals of participating in the Paralympics in a few more years. You’ll notice all of the athletes have classifications. S1-S10 are for those athletes with physical disabilities, S11-S13 are athletes with a visual impairment and S14 are for athletes with a cognitive impairment.
    Thanks again for shining the spotlight on these books!

    • literacious

      Thanks for commenting ting Michele! Good luck to your daughter as she continues her training and thanks for the explanation of classifications! There are some absolutely inspiring athletes that don’t get as much as press as athletes in the Olympics and I wanted to do my part to highlight these amazing athletes!

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