Visually impaired
Easy Books
The Blind Hunter
Kristina Rodanas (E) M. Cavendish, 2003. A blind African hunter teaches a young man how to see by using his other senses.
Helen Keller And The Big Storm
Pat Lakin (E) Aladdin, 2002. A true incident in the life of young Helen Keller in which she gets stuck in a storm and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, rescues her.
The Hickory Chair
Lisa Rowe Fraustino (E) Arthur Levine Books, 2001. Luis, who is blind, knows his grandmother by her scent, her voice, and her stories. And he knows she loves him. But when Gran passes away and leaves notes hidden in her things for each family member to find, Luis seems to be the only one forgotten.
Knots On A Counting Rope
Bill Martin (E) H. Holt, c1987. 32 p. In this poignant story, the counting rope is a metaphor for the passage of time and for a boy’s emerging confidence in facing his blindness.
Looking Out For Sarah
Glenna Lang, (E) Talewinds, c2001. Describes a day in the life of a seeing eye dog, from going with his owner to the grocery store and post office, to visiting a class of school children, and playing ball. Also describes their three-hundred mile walk from Boston to New York.
Lucy’s Picture
Nicola Moon (E) Pictures by Alex Ayliffe. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1995. A young girl creates a special picture that her blind grandfather can “see” with his hands.
Melanie
Carol Carrick (E) Clarion Books, c1996. 28 p. When her grandfather goes in search of one who can heal her of her blindness and fails to return, Melanie follows and rescues him from a hideous troll.
Junior Nonfiction
Dear Dr. Bell— Your Friend, Helen Keller
Judith St. George (JUV 362.41 SAI). New York : Putnam’s, c1992. 95p. Follows the parallel lives of Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell, who continued to encounter and support each other from that eventful meeting when he recommended she be given a teacher and thus led her to Annie Sullivan.
Helen Keller
David A. Adler (JUV 362.41 ADL ) ; illustrated by John Wallner. New York : Holiday House, c2003. 32 p. A brief biography highlights some of the struggles and accomplishments in the life of Helen Keller who was both blind and deaf.
Helen Keller : Rebellious Spirit
Laurie Lawlor (JUV 362.4 LAW). New York : Holiday House, c2001. 168 p.
Little By Little : A Writer’s Education
Jean Little (JUV 813.54 LIT). Ontario : Viking, 1987. 233 p. Jean Little tells of her struggles with a severely impaired visual handicap. Despite this, she has become a well-known children’s author.
Little Stevie Wonder
Quincy Troupe (JUV 811.6 TRO ) ; illustrated by Lisa Cohen. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2005. + 1 sound disc. A poem tribute to blind musician and composer Stevie Wonder.
Maggie By My Side
Beverly Butler (JUV 362.4 BUT). New York : Putnam, c1987. 96 p. The author describes her experiences at Pilot Dogs, a facility in Ohio where she trained with a guide dog.
Mom Can’t See Me
Sally Hobart Alexander (JUV 617.7 ALE ) ; photograhs by George Ancona. New York : Macmillan, c1990. 48 p. A nine-year-old girl describes how her mother leads an active and rich life despite being blind.
On My Own : The Journey Continues
Sally Hobart Alexander (JUV 362.4 ALE). New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, c1997. 165 p. Note: The second part of the author’s autobiography, of which the first part, Taking hold, was published in 1994. The author describes the difficulties and accomplishments she experiences as she adjusts to living independently after losing her sight.
Out Of Darkness : The Story Of Louis Braille
Russell Freedman (JUV 686.2 FRE ) ; illustrated by Kate Kiesler. New York : Clarion Books, c1997. 81 p. A biography of the nineteenth-century Frenchman who, having been blinded himself at the age of three, went on to develop a system of raised dots on paper that enabled blind people to read and write.
A Picture Book Of Helen Keller
David A. Adler (JUV 362.4 ADL); illustrated by John & Alexandra Wallner. New York : Holiday House, c1990. 32 p. A brief biography of the woman who overcame her handicaps of being both blind and deaf.
Stars Come Out Within
Jean Little. (JUV 813.54 LIT) Markham, Ont., Canada ; New York, N.Y., USA : Viking, 1990. 260 p. It illustrates the struggles of a person with a visual problem.
The World At Her Fingertips : The Story Of Helen Keller
Joan Dash (JUV 362.4 DAS). New York : Scholastic Press, 2001.
Junior Fiction
Blind Flight
Hilary Milton (JF). New York : Watts, 1980. 138 p. Flying with her uncle in his small plane, 13-year-old Debbie who has been blind for about a year must suddenly take control of the plane when her uncle loses consciousness.
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup
Sharon Creech (JF); drawings by Chris Raschka. New York : Joanna Cotler Books/HarperColins, c2003. 141 p. With the help of her wise old grandmother, twelve-year-old Rosie manages to work out some problems in her relationship with her best friend, Bailey, the boy next door. Note: Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee 2005-2006.
Louisiana’s Song
Kerry Madden. New York : Viking, 2007. 278 p. ; 22 cm.
Lumber Camp Library
Natalie Kinsey-Warnock (JF) ; illustrated by James Bernardin. New York : HarperCollins, 2002. 87 p. Ruby wants to be a teacher, but after her father’s death in a logging accident she must quit school to care for her ten brothers and sisters, until a chance meeting with a lonely old blind woman transforms her life.
Seeing Lessons : The Story Of Abigail Carter And America’s First School For The Blind
Spring Hermann (JF) ; with illustrations by Ib Ohlsson. New York : Holt, c1998. 163 p. When ten-year-old Abby Carter attends the newly established school for the blind in Boston in 1832, she proves that blind people can learn and be independent.
The Seeing Summer
Jeannette Eyerly (JF) ; illustrations by Emily McCully New York : Lippincott, c1981. 153 p. After her initial shock, Carey adjusts to having a blind playmate and takes it upon herself to locate her friend when she is kidnapped.
Sees Behind Trees
Michael Dorris (JF). New York : Hyperion Books for Children, c1996. 104 p. A Native American boy with a special gift to “see” beyond his poor eyesight journeys with an old warrior to a land of mystery and beauty.
The Sound Of Colors : A Journey Of The Imagination
Jimmy Liao (JF) ; English text adapted by Sarah L. Thomson. New York : Little, Brown, 2006. A young woman losing her vision rides the subway with her dog in search of emotional healing.
The Stupendous Dodgeball Fiasco
Janice Repka (JF); illustrated by Glin Dibley. 1st ed. New York : Dutton Children’s Books, 2004. 181 p. Eleven-year-old Phillip’s dream of running away from the circus comes true when his parents allow him to stay with relatives in Hardington, Pennsylvania, where dodgeball is practically a religion and life is anything but normal.
Timothy Of The Cay
Theodore Taylor (JF). San Diego : Harcourt Brace, c1993. 161 p. Having survived being blinded and shipwrecked on a tiny Caribbean island with the old black man Timothy, twelve-year-old white Phillip is rescued and hopes to regain his sight with an operation. Alternate chapters follow the life of Timothy from his days as a young cabin boy. Sequel to: The Cay.
Uncle Shamus
James Duffy (JF). New York : C. Scribner’s Sons, c1992. 132 p. Ten-year-old Akers and his friend Marleena are intrigued by the blind black ex-convict who moves in to their Oklahoma shanty town and enlists their help in a secret plan.
What Would Joey Do?
Jack Gantos (JF). New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. 229 p. Joey tries to keep his life from degenerating into total chaos when his mother sends him to be home-schooled with a hostile blind girl, his divorced parents cannot stop fighting, and his grandmother is dying of emphysema.