EVERY BODY

Kids with disabilities demonstrate the many ways they communicate, learn, and have fun.

“Everybody has a body,” readers are told, but “we’re different shapes, sizes, and shades, and our bodies work in different ways too.” However, those differences “shouldn’t matter. We’re ALL kids!” In simple sentences overlaying color photos, kids with conditions such as blindness, limb difference, and allergies chime in to describe how they learn, play, and love “in our own way.” As the text notes “We have different ways to communicate,” a child wearing hearing aids explains that they use sign language. On a page devoted to kids with learning disabilities, a child confidently declares, “I know I’m different, but I’m just being me.” Importantly, the narration acknowledges that disabilities aren’t always visible; for instance, a child mentions needing medication for their heart. The text concludes by encouraging readers to “be kind to everybody and every kind of body!” Vibrant, expressive photos of racially diverse disabled kids reading, swimming, cycling, cuddling pets, and more present disability as a natural facet of being a kid. Though the kids’ collective narration is well spaced and presented in a large font, comments by individual kids, rendered in a smaller font, blur slightly against the photos. Backmatter includes profiles of advocates with disabilities and further information about disability rights. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An upbeat, welcome introduction to disability.