Book #12 Dear Santa, Please Come to the 19th Floor

The main emphasis of this story is the genuine friendship between two boys and their desire to do nice things for each other. Carlos' disability is secondary. This is the only picture book I could find with a Christmas theme that also portrays a character with a disability. It was published in 2002. Writers, take up your pens (or keyboards). We need more holiday stories that portray characters with disabilities--Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and others!

	Related Information	Comments
Title	Dear Santa, Please Come to the 19th Floor
Author	Yin
Illustrator	Chris Soentpiet	www.soentpiet.com
Publisher	Philomel Books	A division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers
Year of Pub:	2002
ISBN:     (ISBN-13)	0-399-23636-8
Age range	4-9
Type of Disability	Spinal cord injury	Partial paralysis; need for a wheelchair
Fiction or Nonfiction	Fiction
Category:  C, D A) books that provide factual information about a disability B) books that provide information about a disability in a story format in which the character with a disability is integral to the plot C) books that provide stories that have a character with a disability who may or may not be integral  to the storyline and who has been added to the story to achieve diversity and reflect reality D) books that include a main character with a disability but whose focus is not necessarily the  disability
Annotation:  Carlos has been rather “down” since the accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He used to dream about becoming a basketball star, but now he doesn't even bounce the ball. Christmas is  coming, and Willy, Carlos’ best friend, emails Santa with a personal request to come to the 19th floor of the apartment building in their rough neighborhood to cheer up Carlos.  Carlos himself has similar ideas, but when Santa arrives, the elevators aren't working. With Willy’s encouragement, Santa climbs nineteen flights of stairs to surprise Carlos (and Willy) and give both boys their gifts—and a sense of hope.
Link to publisher:	(You may need to copy and paste the link into your browser.) http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/yr/philomel.html
Links to professional reviews:	http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/yin/dear-santa-please-come-to-the-19th-floor/ (Kirkus); (If you cannot click on the following link, copy and paste into your browser.)  http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Santa-Please-Come-Floor/dp/0142419311/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360017261&sr=1-1&keywords=Santa%2C+Please+come+to+the+19th+Floor (scroll down to "Editorial Reviews" to see reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal)
Awards:

                       

Standards for Quality Portrayal of Characters with a disability		Comments
1. Promotes empathy not pity	Yes
2. Promotes acceptance, not ridicule	Yes
3. Emphasizes success rather than, or in addition to failure	Not really	We know Carlos was successful at basketball before the accident, but we do not see any new successes in the story.
4. Promotes positive images of persons with disabilities or illness	Yes (mainly through the illustrations)	Carlos is genuinely excited by Santa’s visit and grateful for his friend’s actions. This we can tell by looking at the vivid illustrations.
5. Assists children in gaining accurate understanding of the disability or illness	No	This is not the goal of the story. Although we know Carlos has a spinal cord injury and needs a wheelchair to get around, we don’t know any other details about his disability.
6. Demonstrates respect for persons with disabilities or illness	Yes
7. Promotes attitude of “one of us” not “one of them.”	Yes
8. Uses people-first language	Yes
9. Describes the disability or person with disabilities or illness as realistic (not subhuman or superhuman)	Yes
10. Depicts people with disabilities as more similar to than different from other people	Yes	The illustrations are portrait-like and show a true friendship between Carlos and Willy.
11. Shows peoples’ strengths and abilities along with their disabilities	Somewhat	Carlos’ strengths and abilities are not emphasized.
12. Represents characters as strong, independent people who others can admire or learn from	Not really	We have an impression of Carlos from before the accident of a boy who loved to play basketball and was carefree and happy. However, since the accident, Carlos has been sad. But Santa’s visit really cheers him up.
13. Represents people with disabilities from different racial and cultural backgrounds, religions, age groups, and sexual orientations	Yes, the characters are Hispanic	The story takes place in a poor, rough neighborhood. The residents of the building are hard-working people, many of them people of color. Other, kinds of people are shown as well, including an alcoholic who lives in the building.
14. Shows people with disabilities in integrated settings and activities	Yes
15. Shows people with disabilities in valued occupations and diverse roles.	N.A.
16. Shows people with disabilities in reciprocal relationships	Yes	Carlos and Willy are best friends.
17. Main character develops and grows emotionally as a result of what happens in the story	Not really, but he certainly looks happier as a result of what happens.	We do see Carlos thinking of his friend, and we understand at the end that Carlos has asked Santa to come for the sake of his friend.

Contests and Competitions

The  Whole Megillah, a blog written by Barbara Krasner, is holding its annual Jewish Picture Book contest. Deadline is February 15th. I'm entering. Are you?  Here's the info:  http://thewholemegillah.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/announcing-the-2013-the-whole-megillah-picture-book-manuscript-contest/

Do you know about the Schneider Family Book Award? It's an annual award given in three categories to writers of children's literature that include characters with disabilities. Only published books can be submitted. The deadline each year is December 1st, so you have a whole 11 months to think about your favorite books that portray characters with disabilities. Maybe a book featured on this blog will be one of the next winners.  Here's more information:  http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/1/apply

The Dolly Gray Award:  The Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award was initiated in 2000 to recognize authors, illustrators, and publishers of high quality fictional and biographical children, intermediate, and young adult books that appropriately portray individuals with developmental disabilities. Read more: http://daddcec.org/Awards/DollyGrayAwards.aspx  Look carefully, and you'll see that My Brother Charlie, featured on this blog in August, was a Dolly Gray award winner in 2012. The awards are given every even year.

Book #11 Let's Hear It For Almigal

Almigal is a charming, bubbly little girl reminiscent of Fancy Nancy. She wears pink hearing aids and has a good friend who wears purple ones. She can’t hear all the sounds she wants to hear and decides to get cochlear implants.

	Related Information	Comments
Name of Book:	Let’s Hear it for Almigal
Authors	Wendy Kupfer	www.wendykupfer.com
Illustrator	Tammie Lyon
Publisher	Handfinger Press
Year of Pub:	2012
ISBN:     (ISBN-13)	978-0-9838294-0-9
Age range	4-8
Type of Disability	Hearing Loss	Need for Cochlear Implants
Fiction or Nonfiction	Fiction
Category:  B A) books that provide factual information about a disability B) books that provide information about a disability in a story format in which the character with a disability is integral to the plot C) books that provide stories that have a character with a disability who may or may not be integral to the storyline and who has been added to the story to achieve diversity and reflect reality D) books that include a main character with a disability, but the focus of the book is not necessarily the disability
Annotation: Although most of the time, bubbly Almigal feels lucky and happy because she has so many friends and celebrates their differences, sometimes she feels unlucky because she wears hearing aids and cannot hear every single sound. Specifically she would like to be able to hear her mom and dad say they love her as they tuck her into bed at night. Her hearing doctor suggests cochlear implants, and Almigal has a medical procedure to put them in. Afterward, she feels lucky again because she can hear all the sounds around her.
Link to publisher:	http://www.ipgbook.com/handfinger-press-publisher-HND.php
Links to professional reviews:	https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/wendy-kupfer/lets-hear-it-for-almigal/#review

Standards for Quality Portrayal of Characters with a disability		Comments
1. Promotes empathy not pity	Yes
2. Promotes acceptance, not ridicule	Yes	Almigal has a lot of friends.
3. Emphasizes success rather than, or in addition to failure	Yes
4. Promotes positive images of persons with disabilities or illness	Yes	Almigal is a happy little girl who happens to wear hearing aids.
5. Assists children in gaining accurate understanding of the disability or illness	Yes and No	Some children with hearing loss can be helped to hear better with cochlear implants but not all. This is not mentioned in the story. Also the high cost of cochlear implants is not mentioned.
6. Demonstrates respect for persons with disabilities or illness	Yes
7. Promotes attitude of “one of us” not “one of them.”	Yes
8. Uses people-first language	Yes
9. Describes the disability or person with disabilities or illness as realistic (not subhuman or superhuman)	Yes
10. Depicts people with disabilities as more similar to than different from other people	Yes
11. Shows peoples’ strengths and abilities along with their disabilities	Yes	Almigal’s hearing loss is not portrayed here as a disability as much as it is a “difference” (like her friend Willy’s need to wear glasses).
12. Represents characters as strong, independent people who others can admire or learn from	Yes	The children’s differences are emphasized as strengths that make each child unique.
13. Represents people with disabilities from different racial and cultural backgrounds, religions, age groups, and sexual orientations	Yes	Almigal is white, but some of her friends are of different ethnicities
14. Shows people with disabilities in integrated settings and activities	Yes
15. Shows people with disabilities in valued occupations and diverse roles.	N.A.
16. Shows people with disabilities in reciprocal relationships	Yes
17. Main character develops and grows emotionally as a result of what happens in the story	Not really, but Almigal is fairly mature and accepting of her “difference” before she gets implants.	Almigal can hear better after receiving the cochlear implants so she is very happy at the end.