edited by Jen Campbell, Lucy & James Catchpole
illustrated by Sophie Kamlish
“I was not going to make myself smaller to allow them to feel bigger. I would rather have a disability than be like them...I would rather be like this. I would rather this than their smallness. Their cowardice. They would always be here. In this room. It would never get bigger or better for them” (Pomegranate, Elle McNicoll).
“This is the book we wish we’d had when we were young”. A trailblazing anthology which brings together 22 disabled creatives as they reflect on their younger selves and then draw on this to offer support and advice, delivered with verve and wit, to their younger readers. Contributors describe a huge range of disabilities and they span the globe, including N America, Norway, Nigeria, Ukraine, Australia, Iraq. Many come from the UK. Some of the authors were born disabled and other became disabled as they grew up. They include poets, journalists, ‘influencers’, a Paralympic athlete- and a circus artist! (Mini biographies are included).
The chapters read like empathetic love letters to the authors’ younger selves as well as serving up wisdom, often with great humour, to a new generation of young readers. Readers are prompted to think about whether ‘pity’ prizes or freebies come with strings attached and they witness how each of the creators, often painstakingly, always determinedly, made their world fit them, suit them rather than diminishing or contorting themselves to conform to other people’s ‘norms’. The chapters are accompanied by an illustration which gives a perfect visualisation of each author, as a child, at the core of their world view. Stand out moments for us included James Catchpole’s description of abandoning his false limb on the bedroom floor and setting off to school and Elle McNicoll putting the school bullies in their place by turning up to the school disco in a costume which drips with gold, from the dust on her eyelids to her gilded sandals. Both an accessible, snappy read as well as a fiercely empowering handbook. Age 7-14, Paperback 360pp
Themes: Disabiities