Tag Archives: Rebekah Taussig

Read This!: DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT by Brittany Richman and Alisha Monnin

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Dreams Take Flight: The Story of Deaf Pilot Nellie Zabel Willhite (Own Voices, Own Stories)Dreams Take Flight: The Story of Deaf Pilot Nellie Zabel Willhite by Brittany Richman and Alisha Monnin
Summary: After losing her hearing at four and following a tumultuous education, Nellie Zabel was introduced to the world of flight while working at the Sioux Falls airport. The planes and pilots captured her imagination as she watched them sail alongside the birds. With some encouragement, she enrolled in pilot training–carefully tailoring the courses to accommodate her deafness. In 1928, she took off on her own, becoming the first female pilot in South Dakota–and the first deaf pilot in the nation.

This lovely nonfiction picture book tells the true story of Nellie Zabel Willhite, who became the first licensed deaf pilot in the US. The world was far from accommodating when she was growing up as a deaf child in the early 1900s, but with a combination of her own persistence and the support of caring adults, she got an education and found a job. But when she finally took the flying lessons she had been dreaming of, her life took off. This story features an inspiring woman at its center, but it is also a great discussion-starter about intersectional identities and the various barriers that marginalized people throughout history have faced.

DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT is out now.

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Read This!: WE ARE THE SCRAPPY ONES by Rebekah Taussig and Kirbi Fagan

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We Are the Scrappy OnesWe Are the Scrappy Ones by Rebekah Taussig and Kirbi Fagan
Summary:  We are the scrappy ones. / We live, we adapt, we defy. / Made of stardust and grit, we are spectacular. 
Children with disabilities experience the world in all kinds of ways. Yet one thing they share is navigating a world that doesn’t always make space for them as they are. Existing on the edges can feel unfair—and downright exhausting. And at the exact same time, it can also foster creativity, resourcefulness, and adaptability. In a word, scrappiness.

In lyrical prose overflowing with gorgeous imagery, author and disability advocate Rebekah Taussig celebrates the unique and authentic experiences of children with disabilities: “We might move slowly or in zigzags, but we thrum our own tempos to beautiful songs.” Taussig’s text flows with Kirbi Fagan’s evocative pastel, colored pencil, and collage illustrations, which showcase the diversity of the disability experience. Yes, medical devices, wheelchairs, hearing aids, and guide dogs appear, but always the focus is on the agency of the children interacting with their world. This book is a glorious ode to the spirit of disabled children, acknowledging that “[the] burden we carry is the weight of a world that wasn’t built with us in mind.” Especially powerful is the section highlighting “revolutionaries thinking of you before you were born, fighting to get this world ready for you.” (Those revolutionaries, all members of the disability community, are featured in more detail in the back matter and each one is someone all kids and adults should learn about!) The core message is as simple as it is necessary: you are not alone. A beautiful, moving, and necessary picture book for all collections.

WE ARE THE SCRAPPY ONES is out now.

Bonus recommendation: Check out my review of Rebekah Taussig’s excellent memoir, Sitting Pretty.

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Read This!: SITTING PRETTY by Rebekah Taussig

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Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled BodySitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig
Summary: Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life. Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story.

In this combination memoir, essay collection, and call to action, Rebekah Taussig invites the reader to consider disability from a different perspective. “Instead of disability as the limitation,” she asks, “what if a lack of imagination was the actual barrier?” She shares stories from her life, which are at turns wry, hilarious, and poignant, but always she ties her experiences to a larger message: What does it mean to be truly inclusive? She lays out how depictions of marginalized people in media affect our society at a granular level, and shows everyone is disadvantaged when some voices are silenced. Taussig’s writing is mesmerizing, and she articulates deep truths in straightforward prose. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book:
“Inclusion isn’t better just because it’s kinder. We should bring disabled perspectives to the center because these perspectives create a world that is more imaginative, more flexible, more sustainable, more dynamic and vibrant for everyone who lives in a body.”

Sitting Pretty is out now.

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