The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. The following selection includes the Schneider Family Book Awards Winners from 2015-2026.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Wanda Díaz Merced wanted to study the stars. But when she lost her sight, she had to find a new way to work. Through the use of sonification, which turns data into sound, she was able to make a path for herself and other scientists with disabilities.
It's been four years since rain fell on the Oklahoma panhandle, and the closeness between the Stanton twins has dried up as much as the land. Howe has been practicing running away and longs for the family to quit this land of dust and broken dreams. Despite the scoliosis that causes Jonna near-constant pain, she isn't ready to give up like her brother. But when Daddy leaves the family behind to find work in California, saving the farm from ruin falls on Howe's unwilling and Joanna's uneven shoulders. To pay the family's debts, Joanna takes a job at the local hospital and discovers purpose in helping others. Meanwhile, Howe finds unexpected joy in caring for his father's horse and escapes in a borrowed book. But then a tragedy in town reveals the dust's deadly dangers. With the worst storm of the Dust Bowl bearing down on their home, Howe and Joanna must put aside their differences and work together, or everyone and everything they love will be lost to the dust.
A young girl "reluctantly agrees to join her mom at an ice festival, where they watch sculptors chisel and drill until it's too cold to watch anymore. That night the girl discovers that she has lost the horse figurine she'd brought with her, and she wishes she'd never gone--until the next night, when they return to the festival and see what the artists have created: sparkling, glorious sculptures that feel a little like magic.
Andrew's just trying to make it through Picture Day, which is easier said than done when it seems like the whole world is out to get him-from a bully to a science experiment gone wrong to a someone else's juice snot (don't ask). But as Andrew goes through the school day, and as one thing after another goes wrong, that little kernel of worry in his stomach is getting hotter and hotter, until it threatens to pop and turn into a public panic attack, his worst fear. He tries to keep his anxiety at bay, but the news that his grandmother with Alzheimer's is missing is too much.
Follows thirteen-year-old neurodivergent Maudie during an eventful summer in California with her father, where she struggles with whether to share a terrible secret about life with her mom and stepdad.
Henry, a first grader on the autism spectrum, attempts to navigate friendships, and sudden changes in classroom routines--like a parade on Friday instead of share time.
A nonfiction picture book biography celebrating Evelyn Glennie, a deaf woman, who became the first full-time solo percussionist in the world.
Twelve-year-old Maggie's stutter causes her much heartache and only her menagerie of pets, whom she can speak with fluidly, provide her comfort, but when she finds Rumpus, an abandoned snow leopard in a forest in Cornwall, their chance encounter will change their lives forer.
Deep down, Axel knows that his mother is like an osprey--the best of all bird mothers--but it's hard to remember that when she worries and keeps secrets about important things. His dad is more like a wild turkey, coming and going as he pleases. His dad's latest disappearance is the biggest mystery of all. When a tornado damages not only Axel's home but the eagles' nest, Axel's life is thrown into chaos. Suddenly his dad is back to help repair the damage, and Axel has to manage his dad's presence and his beloved birds' absence. Plus, his mom seems to be keeping even more secrets. But Axel knows another important fact: an eagle's instinct is to soar. Axel must trust his own instincts to help heal his family and the nest he loves.
A young girl, who is visually impaired, finds much to celebrate as she explores the city she loves. A young girl and her father spend a day in the city, her city, traveling to the places they go together: the playground, the community garden, the market, an outdoor concert. As they do, the girl describes what she senses in delightfully precise, poetic detail. Her city, she says, 'rushes and stops, and waits and goes.' It 'pitters and patters, and drips and drains.' It 'echoes' and 'trills,' and is both 'smelly' and 'sweet.' Her city also speaks, as it 'dings and dongs, and rattles and roars.' And sometimes, maybe even some of the best times, it just listens.
When a child has a "bad speech day" at school, his father gives him a new perspective on his stuttering.
It is 1805 and Mary Lambert has always felt safe among the deaf community of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard where practically everyone communicates in a shared sign language, but recent events have shattered her life; her brother George has died, land disputes between English settlers and the Wampanoag people are becoming increasingly bitter, and a "scientist" determined to discover the origins of the islands' widespread deafness has decided she makes the perfect "live specimen"--and kidnapped her.
Sixth-grader Emilia Torres struggles with ADHD, her controlling abuela, her mother's work commitments, her father's distance after returning from deployment, evolving friendships, and a conflict over school redistricting.
Henry would like to find a friend at school, but for a boy on the autism spectrum, making friends can be difficult, as his efforts are sometimes misinterpreted, or things just go wrong--but Henry keeps trying, and in the end he finds a friend he can play with.
Twelve-year-old Iris and her grandmother, both deaf, drive from Texas to Alaska armed with Iris's plan to help Blue-55, a whale unable to communicate with other whales.
In this creative non-fiction story, Sonia and her friends plant a garden, and each one contributes in his or her own special way, in a book that celebrates the many differences among humans. In this warm and inclusive story by U.S. Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor, inspired by her own childhood diagnosis of diabetes, readers join along as differently abled kids use their strengths to work together and learn about each other.
When he is paired with a girl who has lost her legs, Rescue worries that he isn't up to the task of being her service dog.
As he grieves his best friend Benny's death, Mason and his friend Calvin, who are targeted by the neighborhood bullies, create an underground haven for themselves, but when Calvin goes missing Mason finds himself in trouble.
Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there's a lot more to her -- and to everyone -- than a label, and that great minds don't always think alike.
A fictionalized biography of James Castle, a deaf, autistic artist whose drawings hang in major museums throughout the world.
Dealing with her mother remarrying to a man with twin daughters and her family moving, deaf sixth-grader Macy is told that she must help her elderly neighbor Iris Gillan, who is also getting ready to move to a nursing home.
When Genie and his older brother spend their summer in the country with their grandparents, he learns a secret about his grandfather and what it means to be brave.
Louis Braille was just five years old when he lost his sight. He was a clever boy, determined to live like everyone else, and what he wanted more than anything was to be able to read. Even at the school for the blind in Paris, there were no books for him. And so he invented his own alphabet--a whole new system for writing that could be read by touch. A system so ingenious that it is still used by the blind community today.
Born in Ghana, West Africa, with one deformed leg, he was dismissed by most people—but not by his mother, who taught him to reach for his dreams. As a boy, Emmanuel hopped to school more than two miles each way, learned to play soccer, left home at age thirteen to provide for his family, and, eventually, became a cyclist. He rode an astonishing four hundred miles across Ghana in 2001, spreading his powerful message: disability is not inability. Today, Emmanuel continues to work on behalf of the disabled.
A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.
Struggling with Asperger's, Rose shares a bond with her beloved dog, but when the dog goes missing during a storm, Rose is forced to confront the limits of her comfort levels, even if it means leaving her routines in order to search for her pet.