Book Spotlight: ‘This Kid Can Fly: It’s About Ability, Not Disability’ by Aaron Philip with Tonya Bolden
Contributed by Donna Bray, Vice President, Co-Publisher of Balzer + Bray, HarperCollins Publishers
“How many people with disabilities work here?”
This was one of the first questions young author Aaron
Philip asked our staff when he and his family arrived at the HarperCollins
offices to meet us. We all looked around uncomfortably, because the answer is
that we work with few to no disabled employees. Aaron went on to speak
passionately about the invisibility he and other people with cerebral palsy – and
many wheelchair users – often feel when they rarely see themselves represented
in the workplace, in television and films, in books, in the news. Aaron is
ambitious – he wants a life and a career in the world. But where are his models?