Owning It: Stories About Teens with Disabilities

by Donald R. Gallo (Editor)

From an acclaimed anthologist, a stellar collection of stories about teens with disabilities — and the tenacity, spirit, and humor that drive them.

Chris Crutcher takes us on a wild ride through the mind of a teen with ADD, while David Lubar’s protagonist gets a sobering lesson from his friends. In Gail Giles’s tale, Brad can’t help barking at his classmates but finds understanding when he gives a comical (and informative) presentation to his entire school. And Robert Lipsyte introduces us to an elite task force whose number-one enemy is cancer. Whether their disabilities are physical or psychological, the subjects of these powerful short stories — written by ten outstanding young adult authors — meet every day with wit, intelligence, and courage.

Genres: Short Stories, Young Adult, Anthologies, Disability, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Teen

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2008

About the author

Donald R. Gallo, often called the godfather of YA short stories, is the editor of more than a dozen acclaimed anthologies, including Sixteen, Destination Unexpected, First Crossing, and What Are You Afraid Of?. A former English teacher and professor, he began championing short stories written specifically for teens in 1980, addressing a gap in school curricula. His groundbreaking work has earned numerous accolades, including the ALAN Award for Outstanding Contributions to Young Adult Literature. Gallo now writes, edits, and presents workshops, while also enjoying photography, cooking, and travel from his home in Solon, Ohio.

Reviews

[Kavya_E1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would strongly recommend this book to those who would like to explore what it is like to have a disability from the lens of someone around your age. This book has taught me so much as to how I should react to a certain situation and what exactly they are dealing with.

[Maria Lawrence]

For a school book project 🙄

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An outstanding collection of short stories about teens dealing with various disabilities, including alcoholism, cancer, blindness, obesity, asthma, ADD, severe migraines (that was painful to read!), brain damage/poor short-term memory, Tourette Syndrome, and inability to walk/wheelchair-bound. The only story I didn't like was the last one by Robert Lipsyte, about the boy in the hospital for cancer. I learned something about the conditions described from every one of the stories. My favorites were "Here's to Good Friends" by David Lubar, about a clueless teen alcoholic, and "Brainiac" by Alex Flinn, about a former cheerleader and honor student trying to cope with severe short-term memory loss caused by brain damage. Highly recommended!

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

God. This book was a disappointment. First, let me say the two good things about it--one, I haven't seen any other book like this out there and two, the editor did a really good job of including stories about invisibly disabled teens that were dealing with a lot of different issues that often aren't seen as part of the disability community: cancer, alcoholism, fat oppression, adhd, migraines...so that was cool. However. Even though there are several well-known YA authors in this book (some of whom come out as disabled in their bios), most of the stories were waaay didactic and seemed preachy and unrealistic. I rolled my eyes several times, groaned out loud a few. the theme of this collection is: IT'S! OKAY! TO! BE! DISABLED! :D!
Very disappointing.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent mix of short stories covering various disabilities and illnesses. There were some stories that veered a little too close to the "show and tell and explain" didacticism that disability-related fiction (written by nondisabled authors) can hit -- the Life Time Movie/After-School Special model -- but there were others that rang true to me as a real attempt to get into the heads, hearts and lives of kids living with disabilities. I was dismayed not to notice any authors who self-identified as having disabilities themselves, except for the last who is a cancer survivor himself.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Series of very short stories about teenagers coping with personal difficulties such as blindness, ADHD, Tourette's and so on. The stories were very short, and all of them end on a positive, hopeful note.

[Julia (Pages for Thoughts) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say, I really did not like this book. One of my many issues with this book is the lack of similarity. Some stories are super easy, while some are pretty hard. It is hard to categorize a reading level for this because they are all different. Some stories involve things like curse words, drugs and alcohol, while others are complete opposites. All the authors took it in their own way, and I think that there should have been some guidelines.

I also do not like the title. I think using "disabilities" could be offensive to certain people. It is so negative, and I don't think that should be in the title. I think a better word could be challenges, or something more vague and less intense.

Some of the stories I don't think should be short stories. Some of them I think could have said more than they did, and I think a couple of them felt too limited, while others were too long! Overall, there was just too much variety, and it was like random pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that don't go.

[Amanda Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read short stories. Provides resources to follow up on the issues. Only thing the bugged me was that the first story was about a student who is an alcoholic...not someone I would classify as "disabled" so I felt the subtitle was misleading. The rest of the characters were navigating what I would consider disabilities- blindness, brain damage from an accident, cancer, etc

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection! Definitely sharing with my students.

[crystalibrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with others who have reviewed this book- pretty disappointing. Great premise but the execution was quite poor. I felt like some of the writing wasn't polished, or it felt unfinished. Perhaps because it is based on American teen experiences? I couldn't really relate to the characters (and this isn't even taking into consideration relating to characters with disabilities that I am not very familiar with) Even the supporting characterisation in some of the stories was very poor.

Having said that, I am pleased that such a book has been published. However, it has included several "disabilities" that I don't believe fit under the proper definition of a disability, for example: alcoholism, or obesity. (I am speaking from a strictly special education/identification of special needs students point of view) Granted, they are very important issues that young people can relate to, but I feel affronted in particular by the kid who has an alcohol problem who has been included as having a disability. This is more of a social issue, rather than a disability, unless, perhaps the alcoholism has impaired function so much so that learning has been affected.

It would have been interesting to get perspectives from students who have learning difficulties, or are on the autism spectrum, in order to give readers an indication of what people who have these special needs are thinking and feeling, particularly as these are probably the most prevalent in schools today.

[Int'l librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies need stories that stand out, but it’s hard to identify any favorites here. Robert Lypsite’s view into a cancer ward comes closest. I also liked “See You” by Kathleen Jeffrine Johnson. Other than that, Gallo’s editor’s notes are the biggest highlights. The rest of the stories are either too flat, or abrupt, or obvious, or all of the above.

One other point – Gallo has an extended view of disability. In addition to cancer, there’s a teen alcoholic, a girl who suffers from migraines, and a fat-thin combo platter. I learned at least a little bit about a lot of different problems. It’s all disabling in its own way, but in this case it’s not especially conducive to great reading.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this collection. I was excited to read it because there are very few books out there that depict teens with disabilities and the stories are by top notch authors, but I found them to be overly didactic and preachy. As a person with a disability myself, I am feel very upset with books about people with disabilities that solely seek to teach and fail to depict them as people first. I'm not saying all the stories in this collection are that way, but as a whole the collection just isn't that great. There are better books out there that depict the experience of being a person with a disability that I would recommend over this one.

[Zoie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this story called "Tic and Shout" in this book. It was a story about a boy with Tourette Syndrome (who knew it was spelled that way). A breath of fresh air after all of the stupid yelling swear-words stereotypes we usually hear, "Tic and Shout" showed the serious side of the syndrome and the difficulties involved with it.

I liked this a lot. It wasn't suspenseful or funny. It was just nice. I wouldn't make fun of someone with Tourette Syndrome before, but I probably wouldn't do a ton to set stereotypes straight. Now, I think I will probably have something more to say. I learned a lot from this book.

Language- PG language, at most.
Violence- None
Sex- None
Drugs/Alcohol- None

[Taylor Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, if I was just rating the quality of the stories, it'd get a 5. However, it's kind of false advertising in the title. Many if not most of the stories are about people with illnesses, not disabilities. If it had said illnesses and disabilities, I may have given it 5 stars, or 10 on a full scale. As it is, I'd say a 4.5 since I was seeking truely disability focused stories.
I really liked the stories, though. I downloaded many books on the grounds of I liked the authors of their respective short stories, and I may have found a new favorite author.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many wonderful authors -- authors whose work I respect and really, really enjoy -- writing such mediocre short stories. Oof. Most of these stories were stilted, preachy, issue-ridden, and seemed not all that well-informed. Maybe if I'd been a teen without any knowledge of disability stuff I would have found it eye-opening? As an adult with a background in the disability community who knows how talented these authors are, I was pretty disappointed.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suitable for gr. 6-12, probably would make more of an impact in high school. A couple of the stories were a bit gritty, but not inappropriate for middle school. Ten stories by well-known authors describe, in very realistic terms, the lives of disabled teens without preaching for the most part. Disabilities range from Tourette’s Syndrome to blindness to obesity to brain damage, alcoholism and more. Highly recommended, especially for high school.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm more of a novel reader, but this book nicely laid out the perspectives of students with disabilities, highlighting the various situations and emotions students with disabilities may run into that people who don't have this disability might not consider a factor. It really helped me to see the world through their perspective and allowed me to feel more empathy and acceptance for people dealing with disabilities, especially in close communities like a classroom setting.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories written for the point of view of teens with various disabilities. I would not just hand it to a teenager, but it would give some teenagers someone to identify with. I found it awakening to "see" things from the teenagers point of view; hopefully it can help with some of my special ones.

[Brian Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this collection. I thought it was really nice that they went for a broader than normal approach to what a disability is, dealing with many issues teens face but I was disappointed the cover was so dull, boring, generic, and without any brave nature to it. It just looked like any YA cover and lets face it, most YA covers are pretty boring and generic.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Perfect for teens or for anyone that works with teens. Everyone can relate to the stories in the book, since much of it has to do with the high school need to belong, fit in, be accepted. I highly recommend this.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book because I work with elementary school children with disabilities. I was a little disappointed though in the stories. Not all of the children had true disabilities and it didn't give very good descriptions of the actual disabilities they do cover.

[Jael · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting

[Emma Christophersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Like how it explains how the disabilities with characters.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had potential, but some of the stories were flimsy. Disappointing.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not usually a fan of short stories; I prefer series and longer novels. That being said, some of the stories in this book packed a powerful punch for only a few short pages, and I really enjoyed the variety of stories being told. The book moves from health issues like chronic migraines and cancer to paraplegia and ADD, giving each character time to voice his or her frustrations or misgivings. As a whole, I got a very well-rounded view of a variety of disabilities, though I would've loved to see each one explored in more detail.

My favorite story of them all was "Under Control" by Chris Crutcher, which deals with a student named Eddie Proffit who struggles with Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. I liked this not only because it involved a student standing up to his teacher and fellow students for something he believed in (which I found to be incredibly brave), but also because of the following quote:

"Imagine that; a guy gets fired for giving kids who don't read a book they want to read... Now he's the janitor at the public library, where he gets to help make policy decisions because they understand how stories touch lives" (p. 73).

As someone who aspires to be a public librarian, this quote really spoke to me. Providing children and teens with stories that could change their lives is my passion, so to see this acknowledged in even a fictional universe was incredibly gratifying. In fact, each of the stories in this book has the potential to help a teen struggling with similar issues, whether it's alcoholism or blindness.

I would gladly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thought-provoking and intriguing stories, or to anyone who has ever felt out of place due to having a disability or being different in any way. Stories really do have the power to change lives, and I really appreciated getting a glimpse into the minds of a few incredibly realistic teen characters.