Title: Different Abilities
Author: Rebecca Pettiford
Illustrator: No illustrator, several photo credits
Publisher and Year: Bullfrog Books, 2018
Number of pages: 24
Tags/Themes: Disabilities, Picture Book, K-1, Diversity, Olivia Ruff
Genre: Educational
Descriptive Annotation: This book is all about children with special needs. The images are all photographs of children with special needs. There is an index in the front and back of the book, and there is a photo glossary in the back of the book as well. There is a page with a few images of sign language. The book shows children through a positive lens. Students do not need to have very advanced word knowledge in order to read this book.
Classroom Application: This book would be great to introduce students to the idea of disabilities. The book is written in a way that shows that students with disabilities are not that much different than students without disabilities, so it would be a good book for an early level social justice unit because it puts the focus on leveling the playing field for all students, showing that they are all not that much different from one another.
Linguistic and Cultural Diversity Analysis: This book is a good way to challenge students to think in a more positive way about students with disabilities. They would be shown that students with special needs are not that different from them. This would not fall under any specific content area but it would be an important learning experience for students in terms of teaching for social justice. Quotations: “Tony plays the violin. He practices every day. Someday he may be famous!” (8) and “Luke can talk without speaking. How? He uses his hands” (12-13).