Happy Ever Afters - disability awareness in children's storybooks - based on the book Happy Ever Afters.
DICSEY Example - an early picture book
Mouse and Elephant written and illustrated by An Vrombaut
2000 Hodder Children's Books ISBN 0-340-74427-8
This colourful easy reader picture book about size, weight, play activities and friendship tells of Mouse and Elephant who want to play together but their different sizes make it hard to find a game that suits them both. Elephant comes up with a fine solution.
The DICSEY highlight in this book is Enable, but Disability and Society could also be raised, and less directly, Young Carers. Try to use the word enable, which implies more than one-way helping. Mouse and Elephant represent non-disabled and disabled people - both vary in their abilities and prefer different ways of doing things.
Mouse and Elephant prefer different games because they are very different sizes.
Question: Do different people prefer different ways of doing things too? Answer: Some use spectacles, wheelchairs, some use sign language etc. When we can't play together because our games do not suit everyone who wants to play, then those people are disabled.
Although they are so different, Elephant finds a way that suits them both.
Question: What ways do we have of making our world suit (enabling) disabled people and non-disabled people? Answer: (eg) ramps, textphones, easy access buses and trains. Question: Do any of these help (enable) non-disabled people too? Answer: ramps help mums and dads with pushchairs and shopping trollies.
Mouse and Elephant help each other ride a bike.
Question: What different ways are there to help (enable) each other? Answer: (example) A child who holds a door open helps (enables) other people to pass through more easily. If this child always has to hold the door because nobody else will (young carers), they might wish the door could be hooked open so they can go though like everyone else, and they may need an adult to fix the hook for them. In our society, we all enable other people in many ways.
Above all, let children enjoy the book!
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© K. Saunders 2000/2001