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<p>Following on from the popular article in our newsletter in Term 1 about <a href="https://school-news.com.au/teachers-desk/choosing-diverse-books/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">choosing books with the right representation</a>, <em>School News</em> is providing a list of some great chapter books and novels for children with neurodiverse characters.</p>
<p><a href="https://school-news.com.au/latest-print-issue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Read the latest edition of <em>School News</em> HERE.</strong></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Autistic author Kate Foster encourages educators to include as many books as possible on school shelves: “It&#8217;s always worth remembering that no two ND people are the same, so the more books you and your class read that star ND characters, the more ND voices you listen to, the more valuable knowledge and understanding you&#8217;ll gain. And it&#8217;s not only the ND children who will benefit from this.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jamie Oliver, better known as the author of dozens of cookbooks, has recently released his first children’s chapter book, based on the stories he would tell his own children each night at bedtime. Oliver has severe dyslexia, and famously didn’t read his first novel until the age of 38. <em>Billy’s Giant</em> <em>Adventure</em> features a main character who struggles with reading and writing at school, something Oliver experienced firsthand, and can write about with authority and sensitivity.</p>
<p>Books are an excellent way for all people to learn about the lived experience of people with mental and health differences and to appreciate what might be going on inside the head of a neurodiverse person when usually all others can see is the outside behaviour.</p>
<p>“A lot of struggles ND people experience are invisible for most of the time and extremely hard for an ND person to describe or explain,” explains Kate Foster. “So, what most people see are the times when those experiences become too much and spill over in the shape of meltdowns and shutdowns. Understanding how life can be on a minute-to-minute basis for ND people through fictional characters preparing for a school production, hunting monsters, flying spaceships, and so on, allows others to share thought processes, feelings, discomfort, and confusion as they occur.”</p>
<h4>The following list is by no means exhaustive but a taste of the growing range of books available featuring characters with a variety of conditions including: Dyslexia, OCD, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Tourette Syndrome, Depression, Anxiety and Agoraphobia.</h4>
<h4><strong>Dyslexia</strong></h4>
<ul>
<li><em>Billy’s Giant Adventure</em> by Jamie Oliver</li>
<li><em>Hank Zipzer</em> series by Henry Winkler</li>
<li><em>Percy Jackson</em> series by Rick Riordan</li>
<li><em>Fish in a Tree</em> by Lynda Mullaly Hunt</li>
</ul>
<h4><strong>OCD</strong></h4>
<ul>
<li><em>The Goldfish Boy</em> by Lisa Thompson</li>
<li><em>The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl</em> by Stacy McAnulty</li>
<li><em>Turtles All the Way Down</em> by John Green</li>
<li><em>Finding Perfect</em> by Elly Swartz</li>
<li><em>Every Last Word</em> by Tamara Ireland Stone</li>
</ul>
<h4><strong>ADHD</strong></h4>
<ul>
<li><em>Clementine</em> by Sara Pennypacker</li>
<li><em>Playing Tyler</em> by T.L. Costa</li>
<li><em>Anne of Green Gables</em> by L.M. Montgomery</li>
</ul>
<h4><strong>ASD</strong></h4>
<ul>
<li><em>Harriet Hound</em> by Kate Foster</li>
<li><em>Autumn Moonbeam</em> by Emma Finlayson-Palmer</li>
<li><em>Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time</em> by Mark Haddon</li>
<li><em>Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close</em> by Jonathan Safran Foer</li>
<li><em>The Rosie Project</em> by Graeme Simsion</li>
<li><em>PAWS</em> by Kate Foster</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><em>Recommended by Kate Foster:</em></strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Social Queue</em> by Kay Kerr</strong></li>
<li><strong><em>The Extraordinary Adventures of Alice Tonks</em> by Emily Kenny</strong></li>
<li><strong><em>The Someday Birds</em> by Sally J. Pla</strong></li>
</ul>
<h4><strong>Schizophrenia</strong></h4>
<ul>
<li><em>Where the Watermelons Grow</em> by Cindy Baldwin</li>
<li><em>Whisper to Me</em> by Nick Lake</li>
<li><em>Fig</em> by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz</li>
<li><em>I Never Promised You a Rose Garden</em> by Joanne Greenberg</li>
<li><em>Challenger Deep</em> by Neil Schusterman</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Bipolar</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><em>The Lightness of Hands</em> by Jess Garvin</li>
<li><em>Sara and the Search for Normal</em> by Wesley King</li>
<li><em>Lily and Dunkin</em> by Donna Gephart</li>
<li><em>For Black Girls Like Me</em> by Mariama J. Lockington</li>
</ul>
<h4><strong>Tourette Syndrome</strong></h4>
<p><strong><em>Recommended by Kate Foster:</em></strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Forget Me Not</em> by Ellie Terry</strong></li>
<li><strong><em>List of Ten</em> by Halli Gomez</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Depression</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><em>Moonflower</em> by Kacen Callendar</li>
<li><em>The Memory of Light</em> by Franciso X. Stork</li>
<li><em>Some Kind of Happiness</em> by Claire Legrand</li>
<li><em>Finding Junie Kim</em> by Ellen Oh</li>
</ul>
<h4><strong>Anxiety</strong></h4>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li><em>Living with Viola</em> by Rosena Fung</li>
<li><em>The Bravest Word</em> by Kate Foster</li>
<li><em>Guts</em> by Raina Telgemeier</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4><strong>Agoraphobia</strong></h4>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li><em>Courage for Beginners</em> by Karen Harrington</li>
<li><em>Under Rose-Tainted Skies</em> by Louise Gornall</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

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