It's Okay to Be Different celebrates all the ways we are unique and inspires kids to embrace everyone’s individuality. Whether you have an invisible friend; feel mad, embarrassed, or proud; need a helping hand; or like to eat mac and cheese in the bathtub, this book offers the perfect affirming message for anyone who has ever felt like the odd one out.

Book           Read Aloud Video      Kindergartem - 2nd Grade

Introduce your students to the magic of reading with Katie Can: A Story About Special Needs. Katie has Down syndrome, but that's not what makes her special! This 24-page book features colorful illustrations and short, simple language to practice early reading comprehension skills.

Book           Read Aloud Video      Kindergarten - 2nd Grade

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. 

Book           Read Aloud Video      1st - 4th Grade

Roxy the raccoon lives in the forest with three friends who love to do everything together, which sometimes means they have to make small changes to their games. By working together, the friends are able to make the forest an inclusive place for everyone, including those with a disability.

Book           Read Aloud Video      Kindergarten - 3rd Grade

Mikayla's friends have an important message. This story of acceptance, understanding and blossoming friendship is one that should be shared with everyone regardless of age or physical diversity. It is a story of honesty and then ultimately trust and the realization that no matter one's limits, we're all the same. The children have dedicated Our Friend Mikayla to "all people with disabilities and their friends." When they chose the dedication, one of the children realized that might mean they were dedicating the book to everyone in the world. That is our hope - that this story will touch lives everywhere.

Read Aloud Video      2nd - 4th Grade

Patricia Polacco is now one of America's most loved children's book creators, but once upon a time, she was a little girl named Trisha starting school. Trisha could paint and draw beautifully, but when she looked at words on a page, all she could see was jumble. It took a very special teacher to recognize little Trisha's dyslexia: Mr. Falker, who encouraged her to overcome her reading disability. Patricia Polacco will never forget him, and neither will we.

Book           Read Aloud Video      3rd - 6th grade

Ellie’s a girl who tells it like it is. That surprises some people, who see a kid in a wheelchair and think she’s going to be all sunshine and cuddles. The thing is, Ellie has big dreams: She might be eating Stouffer’s for dinner, but one day she’s going to be a professional baker. If she’s not writing fan letters to her favorite celebrity chefs, she’s practicing recipes on her well-meaning, if overworked, mother. But when Ellie and her mom move so they can help take care of her ailing grandpa, Ellie has to start all over again in a new town at a new school. Except she’s not just the new kid—she’s the new kid in the wheelchair who lives in the trailer park on the wrong side of town. It all feels like one challenge too many, until Ellie starts to make her first-ever friends. Now she just has to convince her mom that this town might just be the best thing that ever happened to them!

Book             6th - 7th grade

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. Beginning from Auggie’s point of view and expanding to include his classmates, his sister, his family, and others, the perspectives converge to form a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope.

Book             6th - 8th grade