Disability Archives - Ivy's Library

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Disability

Thu
29 ^th

What Happened To You?
by James Catchpole & Karen George

On an ordinary day, in an ordinary park, a little boy called Joe is playing pirates. As he leans over the edge of his ship and waves his trusty sword in the faces of imaginary (moustached!) sharks, he is interrupted by a shout from another child. “YOU’VE ONLY GOT ONE LEG!” she yells – and just like that, Joe’s game is ruined.

It’s clear that the girl hasn’t seen anyone with a missing limb before and she has a lot of questions. She wants to know where the leg is and she’s determined to get some answers. Soon other children join in and they each try to guess what has happened to Joe. Did his leg fall off? Was it stolen by a burglar? Was it eaten by a lion?

For the group of children, the fact that Joe has one leg seems extraordinary, but for Joe this is his everyday reality. He’s perfectly aware he only has one leg but he doesn’t want to talk about it all the time and he certainly doesn’t want to talk about it in the middle of a game of pirates. There are sharks to defeat and crocodiles to vanquish!

Wed
24 ^th

Freddie And The Fairy By Julia Donaldson & Karen George

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This lovely book about hearing loss was recommended to us by one of our recent interviewees – Nell Nash of Tatty Rose. I really liked the look of it so bought us a copy and it’s currently one of Ivy’s favourite bedtime reads.

The story is about a little boy called Freddie who finds a fairy called Bessie-Belle tangled in a tree. He helps her down and she says she will grant him some wishes to say thank you. She tells him that she can’t hear very well and if you look carefully at the illustrations you can see that she’s wearing a little blue hearing aid.

Freddie doesn’t really understand this though so he mumbles when he asks for his wishes. He really wants a pet but because she can’t hear him the fairy doesn’t quite get it right. Freddie’s requests for a cat, a dog or a parrot result in a bat, a frog and a carrot – none of which make great pets!

Fri
31 ^st

All Are Welcome By Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman

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All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman is a fantastic book about diversity and inclusion which can hold Ivy’s attention for ages as the illustrations are super detailed!

The simple story follows a class of children as they go about their day. We see them arrive at class, go through their lessons, eat their lunch, have story time, play in the playground, get picked up by their parents and then go home for dinner before being tucked up in bed. It’s a very normal day for the average child.

What is wonderful is that each of the 30 children in the class is different and we see those differences celebrated throughout the book and reinforced with the regular refrain that ‘All are welcome here’.

Wed
30 ^th

Mermaid By Cerrie Burnell & Laura Ellen Anderson

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Luka lives by the seaside and is fascinated by the ocean but his family don’t share his interest at all. He really wants to learn to swim but he doesn’t have anyone to teach him so instead he watches the waves and wonders what it might be like.

One day he spots a girl having fun in the water and she moves so gracefully that he thinks it must be a mermaid. He watches her for a long time until she swims up to the pier and is pulled gently out of the water by her father. He is so mesmerised by her that he barely notices the fact she uses a wheelchair on land – all he can see is her smile.

She tells him that her name is Sylvia and she offers to teach him to swim. By the end of the next day Luka is able to float on the waves all by himself and his family are very proud of his achievement.