Publishing is becoming more and more diverse, which is truly a wonderful thing. We can write whole recommendation lists on almost every topic now, but one theme that is still a little underrepresented (in our daily lives and on our shelves) are characters with a disability or chronic illness.

Many readers are actively trying to diversify their shelves, which is fantastic! If you are one of those readers who are looking for books with diverse representation and are still on the hunt for books dealing with disability and chronic pain, then this is a good starting point! We’ve collected 16 fictional reads to compile them into a list for you.

We have tried to keep this list as diverse as possible, but if you know of a book dealing with a disability or illness, please leave us a comment below!

Love From A to Z by SK Ali
Representation: Multiple Sclerosis

A marvel: something you find amazing. Even ordinary-amazing. Like potatoes—because they make French fries happen. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together. An oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are.

But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry. When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break. Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her. Then her path crosses with Adam’s.

Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.

Pages I Never Wrote by Marco Donati
Representation: Dyspraxia

 Luke has good friends, a passion for books, and dyspraxia, a disorder that, ironically, makes him unable to write. He also has a hatred for anyone who tries to help him. Yet when he fails his first term at university due to his learning difficulties, he’s forced to get support. That’s how Nate, an excitable last-year student, becomes his self-proclaimed personal tutor and starts writing down essays for him, as a distraction from his own quarter-life crisis. But Luke’s writing ambitions are not just academic. He dreams of penning a novel, although that’s never been a real possibility. Until now.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Representation: Chronic Pain

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items? Enjoy a drunken night out, ride a motorcycle, go camping, have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex, travel the world with nothing but hand luggage, and… do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Every Little Piece of My Heart by Non Pratt
Representation: Lupus

When Sophie receives a parcel from her best friend, Freya, she expects it to contain the reason why Freya left town so suddenly, without goodbyes and without explanation. Instead, she finds a letter addressed to Win, a girl Freya barely knew – or did she? As more letters arrive for more people on the periphery of Freya’s life, Sophie and Win begin to piece together who Freya was and why she left. Sometimes it’s not about who’s gone, but about who they leave behind

The Summer of Impossibilities by Rachel Allen
Representation: Juvenile Arthritis

Skyler, Ellie, Scarlett and Amelia Grace are forced to spend the summer at the lake house where their moms became best friends.

One can’t wait. One would rather gnaw off her own arm than hang out with a bunch of strangers just so their moms can drink too much wine and sing Journey two o’clock in the morning. Two are sisters. Three are currently feuding with their mothers.

One almost sets her crush on fire with a flaming marshmallow. Two steal the boat for a midnight joyride that goes horribly, awkwardly wrong. All of them are hiding something. One falls in love with a boy she thought she despised. Two fall in love with each other. None of them are the same at the end of the summer.

A Curse So Dark And Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
Representation: Cerebral Palsy

Fall in love, break the curse. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir of Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard
Representation: Deaf character

Steffi doesn’t talk, but she has so much to say. Rhys can’t hear, but he can listen. Their love isn’t a lightning strike, it’s the rumbling roll of thunder.

Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom
Representation: Blind character

The Rules: Don’t deceive me. Ever. Especially using my blindness. Especially in public. Don’t help me unless I ask. Otherwise you’re just getting in my way or bothering me. Don’t be weird. Seriously, other than having my eyes closed all the time, I’m just like you only smarter.

Parker Grant doesn’t need 20/20 vision to see right through you. That’s why she created the Rules: Don’t treat her any differently just because she’s blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances. Just ask Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart.

Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz
Representation: Rheumatoid arthritis and Gaucher disease

Isabel has one rule: no dating. It’s easier. It’s safer. It’s better…for the other person. She’s got issues. She’s got secrets. She’s got rheumatoid arthritis. But then she meets another sick kid. He’s got a chronic illness Isabel’s never heard of, something she can’t even pronounce. He understands what it means to be sick. He understands her more than her healthy friends. He understands her more than her own father who’s a doctor.

He’s gorgeous, fun, and foul-mouthed. And totally into her. Isabel has one rule: no dating. It’s complicated. It’s dangerous. It’s never felt better…to consider breaking that rule for him.

A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Representation: ADHD and Dyslexia

When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian—the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five years.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Representation: Autism

Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor’s dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favourite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally.

The Memory Book by Lara Avery
Representation: Niemann-Pick disease type C

Sammie was always a girl with a plan: graduate at the top of her class and get out of her small town as soon as humanly possible. Nothing will stand in her way–not even a rare genetic disorder the doctors say will slowly start to steal her memories and then her health. What she needs is a new plan.

So the Memory Book is born: Sammie’s notes to her future self, a document of moments great and small. It’s where she’ll record every perfect detail of her first date with longtime crush, Stuart–a brilliant young writer who is home for the summer. And where she’ll admit how much she’s missed her childhood best friend, Cooper, and even take some of the blame for the fight that ended their friendship.

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
Representation: Prosopagnosia

Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom’s death, she’s been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby’s ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for every possibility life has to offer. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything. 

Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he’s got swagger, but he’s also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can’t recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He’s the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything, but he can’t understand what’s going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don’t get too close to anyone.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Representation: Character in a wheelchair

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . . Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

All Of My Friends Are Rich by Michael Sarais
Representation: Bi-Polar Depression

Orphan Leo Cotton has finally built a family, but the advent of bipolar depression wakes him from this dreamlife to reveal dark truths about the man he’d married. One year later, Leo is lost. Embarrassed by a dead-end job that barely pays the bills, he can’t help but notice that those around him are all enjoying success. When his closest friend, Sara, asks him to be her best man, Leo reaches the last straw: how can he possibly afford these lavish festivities on his wages? A Grindr chance encounter reveals that a shortcut to riches does exist . . . but in the end, this reckless route may cost him the loved-ones he aims to impress and welcome terrible danger . . .

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
Representation: Character born without arms and Tourette’s

Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to answer the question over and over again.

Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined. It’s hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven’s about to discover she can do it all . . . even without arms.

Do you have any recommendations? Tell us in the comments below for us to check out as well as other readers!

The post 16 Fiction Books With Disability Representation appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Court of Lions is the long-awaited second and final installment in the “smart, sexy, and devilishly clever” Mirage series by Somaiya Daud (Renée Ahdieh, New York Times bestselling author of The Beautiful)!

More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed M. Masood
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

For fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han, a sweetly funny YA rom-com debut about falling in love, familial expectations, and being a Renaissance Man.

Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A tale as old as time is made new in Ashley Poston’s fresh, geeky retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The acclaimed author of After the Lights Go Out returns with another compelling YA thriller – a timely novel about the intensity and unpredictability of human behaviour under pressure.

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets Roswell by way of Laurie Halse Anderson in this astonishing, genre-bending novel about a Mexican American teen who discovers profound connections between immigration, folklore, and alien life.

Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A YA novel about searching for answers, love, and your eccentric grandma in all the wrong places.

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give, this unforgettable coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

Six Angry Girls by Adrienne Kisner
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Adrienne Kisner’s Six Angry Girls is a story of mock trial, feminism, and the inherent power found in a pair of knitting needles.

You Were Made For Me by Jenna Guillaume
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Katie didn’t mean to create a boy. A boy like a long-lost Hemsworth brother: six-foot tall with floppy hair and eyes like the sky on a clear summer’s day; whose lips taste like cookie dough and whose skin smells like springtime. A boy who is completely devoted to Katie. He was meant to be perfect.  But he was never meant to exist.

Every Little Piece of My Heart by Non Pratt
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

When Sophie receives a parcel from her best friend, Freya, she expects it to contain the reason why Freya left town so suddenly, without goodbyes and without explanation. Instead, she finds a letter addressed to Win, a girl Freya barely knew – or did she? As more letters arrive for more people on the periphery of Freya’s life, Sophie and Win begin to piece together who Freya was and why she left. Sometimes it’s not about who’s gone, but about who they leave behind…

Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From National Book Award Finalist Carrie Arcos comes a thrilling, genre-bending mystery about the history of the Cold War and the UFO phenomenon. Perfect for fans of In the Woods by Tana French and Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A hilarious story of heartbreaks and hijinks from award-winning author Simon James Green.

What August 2020 YA releases are you looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

The post August 2020 YA Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you will be checking any of them out!

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft by Tessa Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood, Emery Lord, Nova Ren Suma, and more
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era. From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely—has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.

Seafire by Natalie C. Parker
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, whose lives have been turned upside down by Aric and his men. The crew has one misson: stay alive, and take down Aric’s armed and armored fleet. But when Caledonia’s best friend and second-in-command just barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether or not to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric Athair once and for all…or will he threaten everything the women of the Mors Navis have worked for?

The Raging Ones by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In a freezing world, where everyone knows the day they will die, three teens break all odds. Franny Bluecastle, a tough city teen and dreams of dying in opulence. Like the entire world, she believes it’s impossible to dodge a deathday. Until the day she does. Court Icecastle knows wealth and prison. Mykal Kickfall fights for those he loves. The rugged Hinterlander shares a frustrating yet unbreakable connection with Court—which only grows more lawless and chaotic as their senses and emotions connect with Franny. With the threat of people learning they’ve dodged their deathdays, they must flee their planet to survive. But to do so, all three will have to hide their shared bond as they vie for a highly sought after spot in the newest mission to space.

#Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Welcome to the near future, where good and honest 8/18 citizens can enjoy watching the executions of society’s most infamous convicted felons, streaming live on The Postman app from the suburbanized prison island Alcatraz 2.0. When eighteen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realises she’s about to be the next victim of the app. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she’s innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman’s cast of executioners kill them off one by one?

The Second Life of Ava Rivers by Faith Gardner
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Ava’s disappearance was the crack in the Rivers family glacier. When Vera’s twin sister, Ava, disappeared one Halloween night, her childhood became a blur of theories, tips, and leads, but never any answers. Now, at eighteen, Vera is counting down the days until she starts her new life at college in Portland, Oregon, far away from the dark cloud she and family have lived under for twelve years. But all that changes when a girl shows up at the local hospital. Her name is Ava Rivers and she wants to go home. But the questions remain: Where was Ava all these years? And who is she now?

The Dark Beneath The Ice by Amelinda Bérubé
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Something is wrong with Marianne. It’s not just that her parents have split up, or that life hasn’t been the same since she quit dancing. Or even that her mother has checked herself into the hospital. She’s losing time. Doing things she would never do. And objects around her seem to break whenever she comes close. Something is after her. But a first attempt at an exorcism calls down the full force of the thing’s rage. It demands Marianne give back what she stole. And Marianne must uncover the truth that lies beneath it all before the nightmare can take what it think it’s owed, leaving Marianne trapped in the darkness of the other side.

Giant Days by Non Pratt
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Based on the hit graphic-novel series from BOOM! Studios, the publisher behind Lumberjanes, Giant Days follows the hilarious and heartfelt misadventures of three university first-years: Daisy, the innocent home-schooled girl; Susan, the sardonic wit; and Esther, the vivacious drama queen. While the girls seem very different, they become fast friends during their first week of university.

How To Breathe Underwater by Vicky Skinner
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Kate’s father has been pressuring her to be perfect for her whole life, pushing her to be the best swimmer she can be. But when Kate finds her dad cheating on her mom, Kate’s perfect world comes crashing down, and Kate is forced to leave home and the swim team she’s been a part of her whole life. Now in a new home, new school, and faced with the prospect of starting over, Kate isn’t so sure that swimming is what she wants anymore. But when she decides to quit, her whole world seems to fall apart. But when Kate gets to know Michael, the cute boy that lives across the hall, she starts to think that starting over might not be so bad. There’s only one problem: Michael has a girlfriend.

To Be Honest by Maggie Ann Martin
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Savannah is dreading being home alone with her overbearing mother after her sister goes off to college. But if she can just get through senior year, she’ll be able to escape to college, too. What she doesn’t count on is that her mother’s obsession with weight has only grown deeper since her appearance on an extreme weight-loss show, and now Savvy’s mom is pressuring her even harder to be constantly mindful of what she eats. Then she meets George, the cute new kid at school who has insecurities of his own. As Savvy and George grow closer, they help each other discover how to live in the moment and enjoy the here and now before it disappears.

The Crescent Stone by Matt Mikalatos
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Madeline Oliver has never wanted for anything, but now she would give anything just to breathe. Jason Wu skates through life on jokes, but when a tragedy leaves him guilt-stricken, he promises to tell only the truth, no matter the price. When a mysterious stranger name Hanali appears to Madeline and offers to heal her in exchange for one year of service to his people, Madeline and Jason are swept into a strange land where they don’t know the rules and where their decisions carry consequences that reach farther than they could ever guess.

Girl At The Grave by Teri Bailey Black
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Valentine has spent years trying to outrun her mother’s legacy. But small towns have long memories, and when a new string of murders occurs, all signs point to the daughter of a murderer. Only one person believes Valentine is innocent—Rowan Blackshaw, the son of the man her mother killed all those years ago. Valentine vows to find the real killer, but when she finally uncovers the horrifying truth, she must choose to face her own dark secrets, even if it means losing Rowan in the end.

The Looking Glass by Janet McNally
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Girls In Trouble. That’s what Sylvie Blake’s older sister Julia renamed their favourite fairy tale book, way back when they were just girls themselves. Now, Julia has disappeared—and no one knows if she’s in trouble. Sylvie is trying to carry on Julia’s impressive legacy at the prestigious National Ballet Theatre Academy, but Julia, ever the star of the show, can’t stay hidden forever. And when she sends Sylvie a copy of their old storybook with a mysterious list inside, Sylvie begins to see signs of her sister everywhere she goes. She may be losing her grip on reality, but Sylvie has to find out if the strange, almost magical things she’s been seeing have anything to do with Julia’s whereabouts.

Check out our other August book picks on our Goodreads list!

Any other releases you’re excited to read this month? Tell us in the comments below!

The post August Book Releases: YA appeared first on The Nerd Daily.