We're proud to share our selections for the Disability in Kidlit Honor Roll: a list of middle grade and young adult novels our editorial team enthusiastically recommend for their portrayal of disabled protagonists.

No stereotypes. No abled gaze. No magical cures. No harmful tropes. Just good books across all genres, vetted by members of our all-disabled editorial team as well as outside readers.

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Honor Roll titles

Cover for El Deafo

El Deafo

by Cece Bell
ABRAMS (Amulet Books) - 2014

Author/illustrator Cece Bell recounts her experiences growing up deaf and seeking true friendship.

Cover for Don’t Touch

Don’t Touch

by Rachel M. Wilson
HarperCollins - 2014

A complicated friendship, budding romance, and theater drama – and one teen girl's authentically depicted struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Cover for This Is Not a Test

This Is Not a Test

by Courtney Summers
Macmillan (St. Martin's Press) - 2012

The apocalypse is supposed to be about survival – but what if you don't want to survive? This zombie horror novel features a deft portrayal of depression.

Cover for Handbook for Dragon Slayers

Handbook for Dragon Slayers

by Merrie Haskell
HarperCollins - 2013

A fun, feminist fairy tale involving dragons, the wild hunt, and a librarian princess with a clubfoot.

Cover for Braced

Braced

by Alyson Gerber
Scholastic (Arthur A. Levine) - 2017

Rachel's scoliosis is worsening, and she's made to wear a back brace 23 hours a day — affecting her family, her best friends, her crush, and her spot on the soccer team.

Cover for Otherbound

Otherbound

by Corinne Duyvis
ABRAMS (Amulet Books) - 2014

With Nolan’s every blink, he witnesses the life of a servant girl from another world. His constant distraction has already cost him a leg – and their inexplicable connection may soon cost the both of them far more.

Cover for Five Flavors of Dumb

Five Flavors of Dumb

by Antony John
Penguin (Dial) - 2010

A deaf girl becomes manager of a high school rock band whose members don't get along.

Cover for Stranger

Stranger

by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith
Penguin Random House (Viking) - 2014

A teen boy deals with PTSD and a damaged hand in this richly populated western/post-apocalyptic YA novel.

Cover for When Reason Breaks

When Reason Breaks

by Cindy L. Rodriguez
Bloomsbury - 2015

A thoughtful read about two teen girls experiencing depression in different ways.

Cover for The State of Grace

The State of Grace

by Rachael Lucas
Macmillan (Feiwel & Friends) - 2018

Grace, who's autistic, navigates her first romantic relationship while trying to cope with her father's absence and her mother's strange behavior.

Cover for The Real Boy

The Real Boy

by Anne Ursu
HarperCollins (Walden Pond Press) - 2013

This lush fantasy story stars an autistic protagonist whose portrayal is immersive and utterly believable.

Cover for History Is All You Left Me

History Is All You Left Me

by Adam Silvera
Soho Teen - 2017

Griffin struggles with the death of his ex-boyfriend Theo and his relationship with Theo's new boyfriend Jackson. Told in dual timelines, History Is All You Left Me features a nuanced portrayal of OCD.

Cover for The Iron Trial

The Iron Trial

by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
Scholastic - 2014

The main character in this middle grade fantasy adventure has a limp that's realistically present yet never overtakes the story — a delicate balance.

Cover for Mooncakes

Mooncakes

by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker
Oni Press - 2019

A talented hard-of-hearing witch reconnects with her non-binary childhood crush; together, they must decipher the mystery of a newly appeared demon in the woods.

Cover for Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling

Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling

by Lucy Frank
Penguin Random House (Schwartz & Wade) - 2014

In this novel-in-verse, two girls with Crohn's bond over the course of a week while sharing a hospital room.

Cover for Not Otherwise Specified

Not Otherwise Specified

by Hannah Moskowitz
Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse) - 2015

A former ballerina in recovery for an eating disorder makes an unlikely friend in her therapy group.

Cover for Far From You

Far From You

by Tess Sharpe
Disney (Hyperion) - 2014

A small-town girl with chronic pain and mobility issues searches for the killer of the girl she loved; this dual-timeline YA is part mystery, part doomed romance.

Cover for Six of Crows

Six of Crows

by Leigh Bardugo
Macmillan (Henry Holt) - 2015

A thief leads an unlikely group of criminals on an impossible heist in this fantasy adventure.

Cover for Kinda Like Brothers

Kinda Like Brothers

by Coe Booth
Scholastic - 2014

Jarrett, who has asthma, is used to his mom bringing home foster babies – but now, she's taken in a kid Jarrett's age, and he's forced to share everything from his room to his school.

Cover for Rage

Rage

by Jackie Morse Kessler
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2011

A girl who self-injures is tapped by Death to become War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Cover for The Bone Houses

The Bone Houses

by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Hachette (Little, Brown) - 2019

In medieval Wales, a thoughtful mapmaker with chronic pain meets a gravedigger whose village is threatened by the living dead.

Cover for The Wild Book

The Wild Book

by Margarita Engle
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2012

In early-1900s Cuba, young Fefa is diagnosed with dyslexia – "word blindness" – and is given a blank book by her mother to practice her writing in.

Cover for You Should See Me in a Crown

You Should See Me in a Crown

by Leah Johnson
Scholastic - 2020

Liz has one chance of gaining a scholarship to attend her dream college: Become prom queen. No easy task for an awkward, anxious Black girl. Especially when she finds herself falling for the main competition.

Cover for For a Muse of Fire

For a Muse of Fire

by Heidi Heilig
HarperCollins (Greenwillow) - 2018

Jetta, a young woman with the ability to harness spirits of the dead, goes up against a colonial empire. A powerful portrayal of PTSD and bipolar disorder.

Cover for Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

by John Green and David Levithan
Penguin (Dutton) - 2010

Told through alternating points of view, two wildly different boys – both named Will Grayson – cross paths and find their lives becoming increasingly entwined.

Cover for A Boy Called Bat

A Boy Called Bat

by Elana K. Arnold
HarperCollins (Walden Pond Press) - 2017

An adorable middle-grade novel about an autistic boy bound and determined to keep a skunk pet.

Cover for The Upside of Unrequited

The Upside of Unrequited

by Becky Albertalli
HarperCollins (Balzer & Bray) - 2017

Molly – who is Jewish, fat, and has an anxiety disorder – has had twenty-six crushes and zero kisses. When her twin sister finds a girlfriend, she tries to set Molly up with a new guy.

Cover for The Elementals

The Elementals

by Saundra Mitchell
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2013

Los Angeles, 1917: a free-spirited girl sets out to become a film director, and a boy disabled after a childhood bout with polio is determined to succeed on his own, each with a wondrous ability to manipulate the world around them ...

Cover for The Oracle Code

The Oracle Code

by Marieke Nijkamp
DC Comics - 2020

This graphic novel explores and reimagines the origins of one of the world's most iconic disabled superheroes: Barbara Gordon of Gotham City, also known as Oracle.