Claiming Disability

Linton, Simi. Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York: New York University, 1998.

Claiming Disability isn't a book about reading diverse literature, per se, but it has helped me think about implications of the language we use to talk about disability and how and when characters with disabilities are portrayed in texts.

One of my favorite quotes appears early in the text:

Disability studies takes for its subject matter not simply the variations that exist in human behavior, appearance, functioning, sensory acuity, and cognitive processing but, more crucially, the meaning we make of those variations. The field explores the critical divisions our society makes in creating the normal versus the pathological, the insider versus the outsider, or the competent citizen versus the ward of the state. (2)

I'm curious about people's responses to this quote: What does this have to do with reading diverse children's literature? Or whether and how we think of "disability" as a category of "diverse literature"? What types of questions would we ask about texts and our reading of texts if we read through a "disability studies" framework?

Example post #2

If you create a g-mail account with your real name, this is how the post will appear.

Example post

If you log on as Guest.MSU with the appropriate password, this is how your blog entry will appear. Remember you have the option of ending your entry with your initials and/or adding your initials as a label.

Does My Head Look Big in This?

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does My Head Look Big in This? New York: Orchard Books, 2007.

Does My Head Look Big in This? is the story of Amal, a Palestinian-Australian girl, who decides to wear the hijab (traditional head scarf) to school. As family, friends, and schoolmates react to this decision, Amal develops new understandings of her identity as a Muslim young woman.

Abdel-Fattah spends a fair amount of time at the beginning of the story establishing that Amal is a "normal" Australian. (She watches "Friends" on tv, worries about her weight, etc.). Although I found this to be a little heavy handed, overall I think Abdel-Farrah does a good job of illustrating the ways in which negotiating multiple cultural expectations can be tricky. The setting of the story, Australia at the time of the post 9-11 terrorist attacks in Bali, provides opportunities to explore the ways in which Muslims face prejudice and discrimination in day to day life.

I found a number of interesting reviews of the book, including one from the Muslim Village Forum which includes information about the author and comments from "insider" readers. VSW