Advocating for Disability Teen Representation in YA Literature- The Importance of Excellent Craft

Advocating for Disability Teen Representation in YA Literature- The Importance of Excellent Craft

Review and Activities: Unbroken - 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens (2018) edited by Marieke Nijkamp

By Dr. Rose Reissman

Many YA writers and readers are rightfully concerned over the fact that disabled teens are rarely prominent as characters, dreamers or storyteller in a fictive world that prides itself on social justice issues.  Various groups including Disability in Kidlit, We Need Diverse Books and DiversifYA have sprung up to raise awareness and to promote works by authors in YA who write to that cause.  However, sometimes the resulting writings are all about the necessary crucial message of teen audience disability and diversity, but forget the craft needed to engage the teen readers in exploring and in applying that goal in their own lives.

Unbroken - 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens (2018) edited by Marieke Nijkamp – is the exception that joyously demonstrates how superb, individual writer storytelling relating the stories of disabled heroes can captivate readers.  The fact that its thirteen contributors all affirm along a broad spectrum of psychological, physical, and emotional disability makes its success as an anthology that much more meaningful for the contributors and its growing legion of readers.

I initially read the book because it was featured at the public library as a groundbreaking anthology focusing on disabled teen protagonists in contrast to other YA works. 

This anthology does include a broad spectrum of well crafted characters who are: autistic, bipolar, suffer from cerebral palsy, use canes, are vision impaired, have special cognitive needs, suffer from anxiety disorder, stomach/eating disorders,  schizophrenia,  and various other physical and emotional conditions. But the disabilities are not the focus of this engaging anthology which includes scripted stories about the theater, science fiction, horror, culturally responsive pilgrimage experiences, historic adventure, realistic fiction, online advice and more. 

The collection offers an opportunity for students who are in integrated co-teaching or inclusion classes or who need special support or who have other challenging conditions to recognize their lives and experiences in the context of very readable short stories. The majority are published and recognized authors, including Francisco Stark and Kody Keplinger. 

What I like about the work:  Beyond its well crafted stories by writers who also identify as disabled themselves or as disability/diversity advocates, these stories each share an optimistic recurring motif and message.  Every story, whether realistic fiction or not, ends with the key disabled teen protagonist capable of moving forward on a journey or toward a goal or to evolving a purposeful life.  The majority of the stories have the disabled teen focusing on a standard YA challenge: romance, bullying, divorce, finances, finding religion or cultural identity, caring for adult or sibling family members, loneliness and beyond.  While these challenges are complicated by the teen’s disability, the teen’s inherent strength of character, ingenuity, decision making and capacity to accept support from someone outside, results in an uplifting story close that promises a positive, not sugar-coated, but realistic future.

How Teachers Can use this work: Students can review a selected story for the accuracy of the disability as researched and also critique the extent to which the story engages the reader as a well crafted story. representative of a particular genre or YA writing style. In doing so, they will enjoy the sole You Tube review of the book https://youtube/PcCKRJotXmc. 

This review can be used as a negative anchor for how students can film their own reviews or conversations about this anthology.  They may also want to do a podcast or a blog which includes an onsite school, licensed, special needs educator or a counselor and a self affirming student with a disability who wants to comment. In this instance students can also write directly to the editor Mariane Nijkamp http://www.mariekehijkamp.com, the author of This is Where It Ends and await a response from her (she does respond, although it may take a few weeks). 

The Goodreads review of this book allows students or teachers to post comments as well https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35120779-unbroken.

Some students may opt to get more personal in their reviews of the stories and write a reflection about how the story reflects or adds insight into the daily life of a peer or even their own personal living with a disability in the context of regular high school angst. Students select a genre or story which particularly appeals to them and “write themselves” as teens into this story. 

In particular, there are several stories which are focused on aspects of teen life that often support or reflect experiences of students with special needs and disabilities such as “Dear Norah James, You Know Nothing About Love”, discussing a school newsletter romance online advice column. Also “A Play in Many Parts” – how a dramatic after school performance can serve as a metaphoric platform for dealing with disability.

Most importantly, some of the disability behaviors and conditions such as anxiety disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, balancing of meds in dealing with ongoing bipolar diagnosis, schizophrenic hallucinations, and others may be ones in which students can enrich their knowledge of these conditions to support themselves or identify and help other peers who have already been diagnosed or may need to be diagnosed. In addition, students can read the short bios of the contributors to learn more about their writings and groups like Disability in Kidlit http://disabilityinkidlit.com, checking out the #diversifyya hashtag on twitter, and We Need Diverse Books https://diversebooks.org

They might even be part of next year’s 2020 WNDB and Penguin Random House Diverse High School Senior Awards or read the Walter winners (named for Walter Dean Myers) books that celebrate teen diversity.

Ultimately, students can react, as citizens of a diverse YA society, to Ms. Nijkamp’s dedication: “To every disabled reader, dreamer, storyteller- We can be heroes. This one’s for us.” The targeted audience for this dedication is far broader than immediately apparent and this work is so well crafted that it is inclusive of those seemingly without disability. Within it they will recognize and empathize with the challenges they encounter as teens and learn ways to move forward.

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Dr. Rose Reissman is the founder of the Writing Institute, now replicated in 200 schools including PS 205 in The Bronx, New York City.  She is a featured author in New York State Union Teachers Educators Voice 2016 and was filmed discussing ESL student leadership literary strategies developed at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school. Ditmas IS 62 is under the leadership of Marielena Santiago Principal and Michelle Buitrago AP. The Writing Institute Team are: Michael Downes, Angelo Carideo, and Amanda Xavier.

Contact: roshchaya@gmail.com