Book Details
Happy Ever Afters -
a storybook guide to teaching children about disability
by Kathy Saunders
This book's cover shows a mother with a child on her lap, reading a picture-book together. The mother is a wheelchair user. The picture was provided by courtesy of the Righting the Picture Project of the Disabled Parent's Network, UK.
Most people will be involved with or affected by disability, yet we rarely teach children how to manage when they encounter disability in themselves, their families or their communities. Too often their perceptions are formed by unhelpful ideas portrayed in the books they are encouraged to read, and helping children to interpret these disability issues appropriately tends to be neglected.
This is the first book to offer a simple framework by which children's fiction can be examined for out-dated or erroneous portrayals of disability. Using readily available children's books, it provides an accessible and adaptable method for teaching all children about understanding and coping with disability and is a guide to introducing young readers to a more realistic perception of relative abilities.
Authors whose books are reviewed include Raymond Briggs, Kathryn Cave, Shirley Hughes, Rose Impey, David McKee, Margaret Mahy, Jill Murphy, Michael Morpurgo, Tomie De Paola, Terry Pratchet, Susan Sallis and Martin Waddell
Book Contents 124 pages
Part One: Children, disability and fiction - Why it is important to recognise disability bias, Reverse images, Use the pictures, Ahoy there illustrators!, Picture book cartoon animals as fictional characters, Get real with the classics, Classroom resources
Part Two: Words we use - Definitions and terms, the medical and social models of disability and the importance of how they differ
Part Three: The DICSEY Code - a framework to evaluate books for their disability interest, looking in detail at the issues of Disability, Image, Control, Society, Enabled and Young carers
Part Four: Into action - Guidance for teachers and parents, Overall method, Example reviews of over thirty children's books, mini-reviews, resources, index
Published March 2000 ISBN 1 85856 213 9 and available from bookshops price £8.95, 12.80 Euros, or direct from Trentham Books http://www.trentham-books.co.uk email: tb@trentham-books.co.uk Trentham Books Ltd, Westview House, 734 London Road, Oakhill, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire England ST4 5NP, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1782 745567 / 844699 Fax: +44 (0)1782 745553.
Also available from various Online bookshops such as Blackwells, Internetbookshop, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Waterstones, Ottakers, and Barnes and Noble
An audio version of this book is available for print disabled people in the UK from the Royal National Institute for the Blind on telephone 0345 023153.
Happy Ever Afters is available in USA through Stylus Publishing. Direct Order website http://Styluspub.com e-mail orders to StylusMail@PressWarehouse.com price US $14.95, Toll free phone:1-800 232 0223 Fax: +1 (703) 661 1501, 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Stirling, Va. 20166.
In Canada through Bacon & Hughes Ltd, email: bacon@storm.ca $19.95, Toll free phone 1-800 563 2468 Tel: (613) 226 8136 Fax (613) 226 812181 Auriga Drive, Unit 30, Nepean, ON, K2E 7YS
© K. Saunders 2000/2001