Here then, are some books to take note of. Three books that I’ve encountered this year do discuss the topic in their own ways. Nice, but how many can you say are in your local library? The best known amongst them, I would argue, is still Virginia Fleming’s Be Good to Eddie Lee, which came out in 1993 and remains the standard bearer (Floyd Cooper’s art being a significant reason why).Īll this is to say that this year, 2018, I’ve noticed some small changes. Why can’t we have a book like that for Lauren or Jamie or someone else? Babble, for the record, made a list of 21 Children’s Books to Celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. While they’re appearing on major network television shows, where are their picture book biographies? Last year Shane Burcaw, who was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), came out with this killer children’s book Not So Different. Take actresses Lauren Potter and Jamie Brewer, for example. It is interesting to note that this is just one of the many examples where television has actually been better at representing kids with Down syndrome than children’s books. Though it’s not widely remembered today, Jason Kingsley, a boy with Down syndrome, appeared on 55 episodes of the show, becoming a regular cast member in the process (check out the post 11 Moments On ‘Sesame Street’ That Championed Diversity And Inclusion for other examples of the show being ahead of its times). None of my childhood literature covered it, so if I wanted to see someone represented in this way I had to turn on Sesame Street. When I was a child I knew what Down syndrome was but I didn’t know it because of any picture books that contained characters with Down syndrome.

How Smudge Came by Nan Gregory