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Ableism: Deal with it and appreciate everyone's abilities
This reader-directed exploration of ableism is both informative and empowering. Author Kimberley Maich uses her experience as a special education specialist, certified teacher, registered psychologist and a board-certified behaviour analyst to present a realistic and accurate book for young readers. Self-assessment quizzes, real life scenarios, myths and Q&As all contribute to understanding ableism and ableist behaviour. Deal with Ableism works to address difficult topics children often struggle with in an accessible and engaging way. The book offers strategies for change for young readers. On every page the text is accompanied by graphic novel-style illustrations that depict characters often not included in illustrated books. Illustrator Kay Nau draws on their experience as a disabled and neurodivergent artist to bring authenticity and life to the characters and scenarios discussed within the book.
32 pages, Library Binding
Published January 1, 2024
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 1, 2024
This book caught my eye at the library. I would love an age appropriate way to further discussions with my kids on ableism. After reading it, though, I don't think this is it.
It's so close to being a great resource but there are just too many ways in which this book is a miss.
From a reading perspective, the content seems aimed at a tween or teenage audience, but this is a short hardback "picture" book. The book is fairly text heavy but keeps discussions of ableism at a pretty personal level -- don't name call, don't bully. It settles for these topics a lot, and they're topics that are pretty extensively covered in children's literature already. I would have liked to see more discussion on ableism SPECIFICALLY, not as a personal issue or making fun of somebody but as a systemic issue. I would have liked to see the book actually address and put words to subtle instances of ableism that kids -- tweens, teens, but also much younger than this book skews -- are already experiencing.
That brings us to one of the major flaws of this book which is that it assumes the reader is not disabled. An inventory -- which has no scoring capability -- contains a list of "am I ableist?" statements which range from obviously bad (no kid is going to admit them or recognize themselves in such a caricature) to things like "People say I shouldn't use the accessible restroom stall." ...is there a reason we're assuming the reader doesn't need the accessible stall? Is there a reason we're ignoring invisible disabilities, after reading three pages prior that they exist?
Another item on the same list is "my teacher doesn't think it's funny when I use speech to text to transcribe swearing." Uh, your teacher is wrong, not necessarily ableist but wrong, because that's hilarious. The opposite feels more ableist to me. And the teacher is also just being A TEACHER, who probably doesn't want students writing swear filled essays. But can we stop gatekeeping accessibility tools? Disabled people have the right to swear via communication tools, the same as nondisabled people. Even if those ways aren't "productive" or virtuous.
There are other examples that didn't sit right with me (including judging seemingly nondisabled students for using calm spaces or other accessibility tools, because apparently, they aren't disabled enough). Overall, the tone of the book is odd and unhelpful, and many of the "solutions" put the reader in a weird position of saviorism while failing to encourage self-reflection by making examples of ableism so glaringly bad and wrong, and the ways of addressing it often petty and inflammatory (No, a "disapproving look" isn't doing what you think it is). There are a few discussions of systemic issues, but the solutions primarily stop at "YES, IT'S ABLEIST!" without any real ideas.
The appearance of the book's spine on a shelf is hilarious, though. "DEAL WITH IT: ABLEISM" reads as comically harsh, like the systems are finally saying the quiet part out loud. Yeah, we do deal with it. All the time. Unfortunately this book doesn't really empower me or my family to deal with it more.
It's so close to being a great resource but there are just too many ways in which this book is a miss.
From a reading perspective, the content seems aimed at a tween or teenage audience, but this is a short hardback "picture" book. The book is fairly text heavy but keeps discussions of ableism at a pretty personal level -- don't name call, don't bully. It settles for these topics a lot, and they're topics that are pretty extensively covered in children's literature already. I would have liked to see more discussion on ableism SPECIFICALLY, not as a personal issue or making fun of somebody but as a systemic issue. I would have liked to see the book actually address and put words to subtle instances of ableism that kids -- tweens, teens, but also much younger than this book skews -- are already experiencing.
That brings us to one of the major flaws of this book which is that it assumes the reader is not disabled. An inventory -- which has no scoring capability -- contains a list of "am I ableist?" statements which range from obviously bad (no kid is going to admit them or recognize themselves in such a caricature) to things like "People say I shouldn't use the accessible restroom stall." ...is there a reason we're assuming the reader doesn't need the accessible stall? Is there a reason we're ignoring invisible disabilities, after reading three pages prior that they exist?
Another item on the same list is "my teacher doesn't think it's funny when I use speech to text to transcribe swearing." Uh, your teacher is wrong, not necessarily ableist but wrong, because that's hilarious. The opposite feels more ableist to me. And the teacher is also just being A TEACHER, who probably doesn't want students writing swear filled essays. But can we stop gatekeeping accessibility tools? Disabled people have the right to swear via communication tools, the same as nondisabled people. Even if those ways aren't "productive" or virtuous.
There are other examples that didn't sit right with me (including judging seemingly nondisabled students for using calm spaces or other accessibility tools, because apparently, they aren't disabled enough). Overall, the tone of the book is odd and unhelpful, and many of the "solutions" put the reader in a weird position of saviorism while failing to encourage self-reflection by making examples of ableism so glaringly bad and wrong, and the ways of addressing it often petty and inflammatory (No, a "disapproving look" isn't doing what you think it is). There are a few discussions of systemic issues, but the solutions primarily stop at "YES, IT'S ABLEIST!" without any real ideas.
The appearance of the book's spine on a shelf is hilarious, though. "DEAL WITH IT: ABLEISM" reads as comically harsh, like the systems are finally saying the quiet part out loud. Yeah, we do deal with it. All the time. Unfortunately this book doesn't really empower me or my family to deal with it more.
June 20, 2024
There are not a whole lot of non-fiction books about ableism for kids, so I'm glad this exists. For the most part, I think it does a good job of explaining, although I do wish that it would have let people know why some words are not acceptable.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews