Library Thursdays: Children's books

It is important for people, especially children, to be able to identify with characters and situations in stories that they read or hear. It is also important to experience characters and situations that are different to ourselves and our situations. For both of these reasons, it is important that books include people with Down syndrome in their stories. In our library, we have a variety of children’s books which should be included in school and public library collections.

There are books for very young children, such as My Up & Down and All Around Book by Majorie Pitzer, ABC for You and Me and 123 for You and Me by Meg Girnis and Shirley Leamon Green which show children with Down syndrome posing to illustrate the concepts as any other child would.


For children who have just started reading or listening to short chapter books independently, there is a series by Sophie Smiley (Bobby, Charlton and theMountain, Man of the Match and Team Trouble) about a family of football fanatics who happens to include a boy with Down syndrome. Older children may enjoy a slightly wacky book, Night Riders by Mark Roberts, about 2 boys with Down syndrome who set off to save a dolphin and end up robbing a bank.

And for teenage siblings there is a book about a twin brother of a boy with Down syndrome A Small White Scar.by K.A. Nuzum.There are others which try to explain what is Down syndrome, and those are also good, but books that simply have characters who happen to have Down syndrome contribute to awareness and acceptance in a very useful way. to awareness and acceptance in a very useful way.

To borrow any of these books, email the library.