The Story of the Invisible Boy: Things That Are
Only 18-year-old Alicia, Bobby, and their parents know about the problem Bobby had a few years ago: somehow, he became invisible. It would have been exciting, but the danger of discovery was too great. Bobby’s and Alicia’s fathers, both physicists, made sure it stayed a secret to prevent technology from falling into the wrong hands.

The trouble is, someone has found out. In Andrew Clements’s Things That Are, an invisible man accosts Bobby, demanding to know how to reverse the effect. He finds Alicia, out for a walk with her guide dog Gertie, and begs for help. Now Alicia and Bobby have to decide whether or not to help William. Is he being honest, or is he on the other side? And if they can get through it without putting everyone they know in danger, will they finally be able to deal with their feelings for each other?

Boy Living with Tourette’s Takes a Road Trip
Sam Carrier—Jack Keegan: which one is it? Sam is the friendless kid with Tourette’s syndrome whose stepfather, Old Bill, mistreats him. Jack is the son of a man who’s full of surprises, a kid who has everything to hope for. You could say that Old Bill robbed Jack of his real life when he changed his name, or you could say that Sam was just waiting to rediscover Jack. But when his father’s old friend George gives him a map that leads to Jerk, California, and Sam hits the road with the girl of his dreams, he’s ready to find out what he’s been missing all these years.

Jonathan Friesen won the 2009 Schneider Family Book Award (Young Adult category) for Jerk, California, for a work portraying a person with a disability. But Sam’s story is also one of growing up and claiming a place in the world, proving that bad starts can still lead to happy endings.

Hidden Lives in Friedman’s Nothing
What about a kid who should have had the best start of all? In Robin Friedman’s Nothing, senior Parker Rabinowitz seems to have everything. His family is wealthy, he’s student body president, a track star, and has class valedictorian in the bag. What no one knows is that Parker is also bulimic. He begins by binging and purging a few times a week. Soon it’s everyday, then twice a day. His demanding parents, too focused on themselves, have no idea what’s going on.

Then Parker’s father is diagnosed with breast cancer. Friedman thoughtfully parallels the two stories, narrated in prose by Parker and in free verse by his sister Danielle. Although the resolution seems to come too easily, this is a gripping story, and the alternating entries, beginning with “88 days before” and counting down, make this one a real page-turner.

Time Travel in City of Secrets
Matt Wood has never felt comfortable in school. His dyslexia affects his studying, and although hot Ayesha doesn’t mind, Matt’s embarrassed. When Aunt Eva sends him a book certificate, Matt reluctantly picks up a old leatherbound book in an antique shop. It turns out to be his talisman, the magical object that sends him to the alternate sixteenth-century Italy called Talia, where a secret society of Stravagantes must fight against the powerful di Chimici family’s anti-magic laws.

Mary Hoffman’s fourth title in the Stravaganza series, City of Secrets, brings new characters to Talia while continuing the stories of Luciano, Arianna, Georgia, and Nick. The series makes a fun read for fantasy and history lovers, but this one works as a stand-alone, too.

Book Information
Clements, Andrew. Things That Are. New York: Philomel, 2008.
Friesen, Jonathan. Jerk, California. New York: Speak, 2008.
Hoffman, Mary. Stravaganza: City of Secrets. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008.
Friedman, Robin. Nothing. Woodbury: Flux, 2008.

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For more book suggestions, see Top Fiction for Children, Teens, and Adults with Disabilities.

Get to know Allen Rucker, an author with a disability, in Writers with Disabilities Have The Best Seat in the House.