[blindkid] Children's books addressing blindness, or featuring blind characters

[Heather]

Oh yeah.  I saw an epesode where, fransine, has a blind friend and they have 
a sleep over.  That prompted me to get the print book, which I am now using 
to build up a collection of that series, since Jeremy loves the show at 
seven A.M.  I think the simple, strait forward animation is easy for him to 
see, the dialogue is realistic and not condescending, but not too fast 
paced, and the background noise is not prohibitive of good language 
development, especially for a VI child.  But, alas, these are too old.  I 
reread it last week and it is just not the correct level for preschoolers. 
I think kindergarden and first grade would be fine, but toddlers?  Not 
quite.  Great suggestion though, and am totally bummed, as I really do love 
this particular book.  Basically, Fransine gets all freaked out that she 
will offend or bother her blind friend and she goes a little nuts trying to 
be overly helpful, wigging out about a chair out of place and being more 
interested in her friend's brailled playing cards and described movies and 
such, than in her actual friend.  It resolves nicely and it is very raw and 
real and genuine.  Take care.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Olivero, Treva" <TEOlivero at nfb.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Children's books addressing blindness,or featuring 
blind characters


> Heather,
> I think some of the Arthur books have a blind secondary character in
> them.
>
> Treva
>
> Treva E. Olivero
>
> Coordinator, Mentoring and Outreach Projects
>
> Jernigan Institute
>
> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
>
> 200 East Wells Street
>
> at Jernigan Place
>
> Baltimore, MD 21230
>
> Phone: (410) 659-9314 ext. 2295
>
> Fax: (410) 659-5129
>
> Email: teolivero at nfb.org
>
> Visit:
> www.nfb.org/mentoring
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Heather
> Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 8:09 AM
> To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
> Subject: [blindkid] Children's books addressing blindness,or featuring
> blind characters
>
> Ok, so I am creating a literacy kit for my EDU200 class and I could use
> some suggestions.  We are to select a book for pre-school aged kids,
> develop games, art projects, other similar activities that appeal to as
> many of gardiner's multiple intelligences as possible, and a teachers'
> guide for the book and activities.  I was hoping to find a book that
> didn't teach about blindness, as even very small children can tell when
> they are being preached and lectured at, but rather one that features a
> blind character, prefferably a blind child character.  They can be the
> main character or just a secondary character.  The important thing is
> that the depiction be accurate, not condescending, not "In your face
> educational" and that the book have a plot and a story, not just a
> series of facts.  I searched for three hours last night on the internet
> with my fiance's help, and neither of us could find any descent books.
> They all had seriously sstigmatizing, and often inaccurate depictions of
> blindness, in a "This is what blindness is, this is what blind people
> are like, this is a guide dog, this is a cane and this is braille, the
> end." format.  I want more of a "Blah blah blah, beginning of story,
> introduce blind character, kid who just happens to be blind, blabity
> blabity blabity development of all characters and a plot line, yadda
> yadda yadda, wrap up story that has nothing to do with blindness, but
> rather some other issue important to or of interest to kids, but with a
> blind protagonist, or even antagonist.  Blind kids are no more always
> little angels than are sighted kids.  I hope someone knows what I mean.
> Not having found a decent book like this I can't even offer up examples
> of what I would like.  Any reccomendations would be appreciated.  Thanks
> much.
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