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Showing 1 - 20 of 107 items
By Ian Brown. 2009
Walker Brown was born with a genetic mutation so rare that perhaps 300 people around the world also live with…
it. Walker turned twelve in 2008, but he weighs only 54 pounds, is still in diapers, can't speak and needs to wear special cuffs on his arms so that he can't continually hit himself. Expanded from Brown's Globe and Mail series about Walker, he sets out to discover his son. Some strong language. Canada Reads 2012. 2009.By Kate Clifford Larson, Marie-Anne de Béru. 2016
Rosemary est la fille de Joe Kennedy et la petite soeur du futur président John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Joe Kennedy est…
le patriarche d'une famille qui incarne le rêve américain. D'origine irlandaise il connaît une fulgurante ascension dans l'industrie et dans la finance. Obsédé par la réussite, la sienne et celle de sa famille, il est sans état d'âme pour ses enfants qu'il dédie à de grandes ambitions politiques. Née en 1918, Rosemary est différente des autres membres de la fratrie. Très vite, on lui décèle un léger retard mental associé plus tard à des troubles de l'humeur. Un peu rebelle, elle affectionne les fêtes, pratique la voile et le tennis. En 1939, elle obtient un diplôme d'enseignante. Mais sa santé mentale se dégrade. Elle séjourne régulièrement dans des établissements spécialisés. Son père craint que Rosemary soit à l'origine d'un éventuel scandale. Il décide alors d'employer les grands moyens et accepte que sa fille soit lobotomisée. L'opération tourne mal. Rosemary en sort lourdement handicapée, à la fois physiquement et mentalement. Elle est alors internée, cachée, effacée. Pendant longtemps, ses propres frères et soeurs ignorent ce qu'est devenue Rosemary. Seule l'attaque cérébrale de Joe en 1961 permet à la famille de la revoir. 2016.By Mary Loudon. 2006
The author's quest to find her sister Catherine, a schizophrenic, in Catherine's home, in her last hospital room, her paintings,…
her letters, her clothes. But in facing the truths about Catherine's life and death, she asks hard questions about sanity, family responsibility, love, and about what it means to say that a life is - or is not - worth living. 2006.By Gill Paul, Allen Parton, Sandra Parton, Christine Auché. 2010
" Un chien doté de capacités exceptionnelles a permis à Allen Parton de retrouver l'envie de vivre. Grièvement blessé à…
la guerre, cloué dans un fauteuil roulant, il ne reconnaissait ni sa femme ni ses enfants et s'exprimait avec difficulté. Commencent alors des mois de rééducation. Ce journal écrit à quatre mains raconte des années de souffrance, un couple qui se déchire et le désespoir d'Allen. " -- 4e de couv. Titre uniforme: Endal : how one extraordinary dog brought a family back from the brink.By Églantine Éméyé. 2015
" Un jour, j'en ai eu assez. Mille fois, j'en ai eu assez. Assez de toi, Samy, assez de tous…
qui ne comprennent rien, de la société qui ne fait rien. Assez. Et puis mille fois, j'ai espéré, mille fois, j'ai ri et pleuré avec toi, mille fois, je t'ai serré dans mes bras. Alors j'ai écrit ce livre pour toi, mon petit bonhomme si différent, pour moi, et pour ton frère, afin qu'il n'oublie pas tous ces fous rires qui émaillent notre drôle de vie aussi. J'ai écrit ce livre pour toutes ces familles dont personne ne voit le désarroi, pour témoigner de notre quotidien durant ces dix ans, déjà. J'ai écrit ce livre en n'épargnant personne parce que personne ne nous épargne. C'est l'histoire de notre combat, c'est l'histoire de notre amour. Un amour que j'ai cru à sens unique. Tu me prouves aujourd'hui le contraire. " Récit intime d'une jeune femme, d'une jeune mère confrontée au quotidien du handicap, mais aussi témoignage sans fard sur un fait de société qu'on occulte : impossible de rester indifférent au cri d'amour de cette maman qui pourrait être nous. " -- 4e de couv.By Neil Matheson. 2009
Neil Matheson was born with a physical disability called Cerebral Palsy, and from that day forward, Neil experienced life on…
a pair of crutches. Despite his physical handicap, Neil grew up like any regular kid. Now, at forty-one years of age, the author reflects back on his life story, a journey on crutches, including struggle, triumph, acceptance, love, and salvation. 2009.By Geri Jewell, Ted Nichelson. 2011
Born with cerebral palsy, Jewell inspired a generation when she became the first person with a disability to appear in…
a recurring role on prime-time television. The book's title refers to both Jewell's sexuality and her struggle growing up with cerebral palsy. Describes her experiences from her traumatic birth in Buffalo, New York, to her rise to stardom as a stand-up comic to becoming a television star, as well as her downward spiral, tax problems, drug addiction, and marriage. Some descriptions of sex, some strong language. 2011.By Lainie Cohen. 2003
In the aftermath of a teenager's life-altering accident, drugs get into one sibling's life, and a physical collapse puts the…
other in a wheelchair. With all three children now facing rehabilitation, the family must work together to survive and thrive. 2003.By Peter Kavanagh. 2015
CBC journalist Peter Kavanagh was just an infant when he was diagnosed with paralytic polio and suffered permanent paralysis in…
the lower part of his left leg. As a child, Kavanagh endured painful medical procedures to even out the length of his legs, and experimental exercise techniques. He spent his youth in a leg brace and special footwear, isolating for a boy whose classmates ran freely in sneakers. His first lesson in walking was how to move while wearing such equipment. Throughout his life, as he developed a very successful career in public broadcasting, built a family, and indulged in his love of music and travel, Kavanagh underwent various surgeries to give him "normal" mobility. 2015.By Wally Thomas. 1960
By Dorothy Ellen Palmer. 2019
Born with congenital anomalies in both feet, then called birth defects, Dorothy Ellen Palmer was adopted as a toddler by…
a wounded 1950s family who had no idea how to handle the tangled complexities of adoption and disability. From repeated childhood surgeries to an activist awakening at university to decades as a feminist teacher, mom, improv coach and unionist, she tried to hide being different. But now, standing proud with her walker, she's sharing her journey. Navigating abandonment, abuse and ableism, she finds her birth parents and a new chosen family in the disability community. 2019.By Amanda Leduc. 2020
Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty?…
If every disabled character is mocked and mistreated, how does the Beast ever imagine a happily-ever-after? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour and linking the quest for disability rights to new kinds of stories that celebrate difference. ‘Leduc peels the flesh from the fairy tales we grew up loving and strips them down to their skeletons to skilfully reveal how they influence the way we think about disability. She contrasts the stories we have with the ones we wish we had, incorporating her own life. Her wisdom lands like a punch in the heart, leaving a sizable dent that reshapes how we see tales we’ve been telling for centuries. She also – and this is the best part – suggests how we might tell new fairy tales, how we can forge new stories.’ – Adam Pottle, author of Voice ‘A unique and dazzling study … a revolutionary approach to understanding why we are drawn to fairy tales and how they shape our lives.’ – Jack Zipes, author of Grimm Legacies ‘Each chapter is a gem, but the kind of gem that turns into a knife, into a mirror, into a portal. Leduc’s real magic? That she transforms her readers as surely as any world.’ – Mira Jacob, author of Good TalkBy Rinaldo Walcott, Idil Abdillahi. 2019
What does it mean in the era of Black Lives Matter to continue to ignore and deny the violence that…
is the foundation of the Canadian nation state? BlackLife discloses the ongoing destruction of Black people as enacted not simply by state structures, but beneath them in the foundational modernist ideology that underlies thinking around migration and movement, as Black erasure and death are unveiled as horrifically acceptable throughout western culture. With exactitude and celerity, Idil Abdillahi and Rinaldo Walcott pull from local history, literature, theory, music, and public policy around everything from arts funding, to crime and mental health--presenting a convincing call to challenge pervasive thought on dominant culture's conception of Black personhood. They argue that artists, theorists, activists, and scholars offer us the opportunity to rethink and expose flawed thought, providing us new avenues into potential new lives and a more livable reality of BlackLife.By Lauren McKeon. 2020
A groundbreaking, insightful book about women and power from award-winning journalist Lauren McKeon, which shows how women are disrupting the…
standard (very male) vision of power, ditching convention, and building a more equitable world for everyone.In the age of girl bosses, Beyoncé, and Black Widow, we like to tell our little girls they can be anything they want when they grow up, except they’ll have to work twice as hard, be told to “play nice,” and face countless double standards that curb their personal, political, and economic power. Women today remain a surprisingly, depressingly long way from gender and racial equality. It’s worth asking: Why do we keep playing a game we were never meant to win?Award-winning journalist and author of F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism, Lauren McKeon examines the many ways in which our institutions are designed to keep women and other marginalized genders at a disadvantage. In doing so, she reveals why we need more than parity, visible diversity, and lone female CEOs to change this power game. She talks to people doing power differently in a variety of sectors and uncovers new models of power. And as the toxic, divisive, and hyper-masculine style of leadership gains ground, she underscores why it’s time to stop playing by the rules of a rigged game.By Julie S. Lalonde. 2020
For over a decade, Julie Lalonde, an award-winning advocate for women’s rights, kept a secret. She crisscrossed the country, denouncing…
violence against women and giving hundreds of media interviews along the way. Her work made national headlines for challenging universities and taking on Canada’s top military brass. Appearing fearless on the surface, Julie met every interview and event with the same fear in her gut: was he there?Fleeing intimate partner violence at age 20, Julie was stalked by her ex-partner for over ten years, rarely mentioning it to friends, let alone addressing it publicly. The contrast between her public career as a brave champion for women with her own private life of violence and fear meant a shaky and exhausting balancing act.Resilience sounds like a positive thing, so why do we often use it against women? Tenacity and bravery might help us survive unimaginable horrors, but where are the spaces for anger and vulnerability?Resilience is Futile is a story of survival, courage and ultimately, hope. But it’s also a challenge to the ways we understand trauma and resilience. It’s the story of one survivor who won’t give up and refuses to shut up.By Daphne B., Alex Manley. 2021
A nuanced, feminist, and deeply personal take on beauty culture and YouTube consumerism, in the tradition of Maggie Nelson’s Bluets…
As Daphné B. obsessively watches YouTube makeup tutorials and haunts Sephora’s website, she’s increasingly troubled by the ways in which this obsession contradicts her anti-capitalist and intersectional feminist politics. In this poetic treatise, she rejects the false binaries of traditional beauty standards and delves into the celebrities and influencers, from Kylie to Grimes, and the poets and philosophers, from Anne Boyer to Audre Lorde, who have shaped the reflection she sees in the mirror. At once confessional and essayistic, Made-Up is a meditation on the makeup that colours, that obscures, that highlights who we are and who we wish we could be. The original French-language edition was a cult hit in Quebec. Translated by Alex Manley—like Daphné, a Montreal poet and essayist—the book’s English-language text crackles with life, retaining the flair and verve of the original, and ensuring that a book on beauty is no less beautiful than its subject matter. “The most radical book of 2020 talks about makeup. Radical in the intransigence with which Daphne B hunts down the parts of her imagination that capitalism has phagocytized. Radical also in its rejection of false binaries (the authentic and the fake, the futile and the essential) through the lens of which such a subject is generally considered. With the help of a heady combination of pop cultural criticism and autobiography, a poet scrutinizes her contradictions. They are also ours.” —Dominic Tardif, Le Devoir “[Made-Up] is a delight. I read it in one go. And when, out of necessity, I had to put it down, it was with regret and with the feeling that I was giving up what could save me from a catastrophe.” —Laurence Fournier, Lettres Québécoises, five stars "Made-Up is a radiant, shimmering blend of memoir and cultural criticism that uses beauty culture as an entry point to interrogating the ugly contradictions of late capitalism. In short, urgent chapters laced with humor and wide-ranging references, Daphné B. plumbs the depths of a rich topic that’s typically dismissed as shallow. I imagine her writing it in eye pencil, using makeup to tell the story of her life, as so many women do." —Amy Berkowitz, author of Tender Points "A companion through the thicket of late stage capitalism, a lucid and poetic mirror for anyone whose image exists on a screen." —Rachel Kauder Nalebuff "Made-Up is anything but—committed to the grit of our current realities, Daphné B directs her piercing eye on capitalism in an intimate portrayal of what it means to love, and how to paint ourselves in the process. Alex Manley has gifted English audiences with a nuanced translation of a critical feminist text, exploring love and make-up as a transformative social tool." —Sruti Islam "The book will leave you both laughing in recognition and wincing at the reality of the beauty world’s impact on our collective psyche." —Chatelaine d"[Made-Up] examines the intersection of beauty culture and consumer culture... Aided by the work of writers like Anne Carson, Anne Boyer, Amanda Hess, and Arabelle Sicardi... B. makes sharp observations about the ideologies behind both beauty [...] and consumerism." —Bitch Media "Made-Up: A True Story of Beauty Culture under Late Capitalism is well worth reading." —Literary Review of Canada "[Made-Up], newly translated by writer/poet Alex Manley from its original French, puts an iBy Christopher Warner. 2016
Life happens, and sometimes it changes in ways that we never expected.After experiencing a surgical complication that rendered me legally…
blind, I decided there were two choices ahead of me: roll over and die, essentially giving in to the fact that life wasn't going to be the same as before, or get on with life and figure out how to move forward with reduced eyesight.This book shares a personal story of trying to bounce back from a life changing event. There were lots of good days and even some funny moments along the way. But no recovery is ever all smooth sailing. There were also bad days, and times when self-doubt and despair took over.By William Bryan Waters. 2014
William Bryan Waters grew up during the Depression in eastern North Carolina and, when he was in his teens, learned…
that he had a hereditary, degenerative disease of the eye called retinitis pigmentosa. This book surprises and delights, however, with tales of the author's youthful escapades as well as insight into education practices. An Epilogue details many accomplishments of William Waters' distinguished career with the Division of Services for the BlindTelling stories specific to Columbia Plateau farmers and farmland, this journalist puts the lives and difficulties of individual farmers into…
national and global contexts. He interweaves family narratives, historical episodes and his own experience as a young harvest hand to illuminate the transformation of rural America from the 19th to 21st centuryBy Michael Hingson, Jeanette Hanscome. 2013
Hingson, blind since birth, describes Roselle's energetic days as a puppy to becoming a confident guide dog. The author recounts…
how their special bond helped them survive the terrorist attacks on September, 11, 2001. For grades 6-9. 2013