Description of the Award

The Dolly Gray Award for Children's Literature in Developmental Disabilities was initiated in 2000 to recognize authors, illustrators, and publishers of high quality fictional children's books that appropriately portray individuals with developmental disabilities.

 

The award is a collaborative work by members of the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and Special Needs Project (a distributor of books related to disability issues).  Every even year, an award is presented to an author and illustrator (if appropriate) of a children's picture book and/or a juvenile/young adult chapter book that includes appropriate portrayals of individuals with developmental disabilities.

2006 Award

The Dolly Gray Award was presented at the CEC-DDD's biennial conference in Kona , Hawaii on February 1, 2007. Books considered for the 2006 award include:

PICTURE BOOKS CONSIDERED	AUTHOR (ILLUSTRATOR)	YEAR	DISABILITY	PUBLISHER
The Best Worst Brother	Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen	2005	Down syndrome	Woodbine House Inc.
	(Charlotte Fremaux)			ISBN: 1-890627-68-2
The Flight of a Dove	Alexandra Day	2004	Autism	Farrar Straus Giroux
				ISBN: 0-374-39952-2
Keeping Up with Roo	Sharlee Glenn	2004	Mental Disabilities	G. P. Putnam's Sons
	(Dan Andreasen)			ISBN: 0-399-23480-2
Keisha's Doors	Marvie Ellis	2005	Autism	Speech Kids Texas Press, Inc.
	(Jenny Loehr)			ISBN: 1-933319-00-3
Life with Gabriel	Jennifer VanDerTuuk-Perkins	2004	Autism	Theragogy.com
	(Rod Perkins and Jennifer VanDerTuuk-Perkins)			ISBN: 0-9749862-0-8
Looking after Louis	Lesley Ely	2004	Autism	Albert Whitman & Company
	(Polly Dunbar)			ISBN:0-8075-4746-8
Matthew's Box	K.B. Reish	2005	Autism	KBR Mutti's Publications
	(Herb Leonhard)			ISBN: 0-9762664-0-7
Me, Hailey	Sheri Plucker	2005	Down syndrome	Jason & Nordic Publishers
	(Todd Fargo)			ISBN: 0944727492
My Best Friend Will	Jamie Lowell & Tara Tuchel	2005	Autism	Autism Asperger Publishing Company
				ISBN: 1931282757
Tacos Anyone?	Marvie Ellis	2005	Autism	Speech Kids Texas Press Inc.
	(Jenny Loehr)			ISBN: 1933319011
To Be Me: Understanding what it's like to have Asperger's Syndrome	Rebecca Etlinger	2005	Asperger Syndrome	Western Psychological Services
	(Mark Tomassi)			ISBN: 0874244528
We Go in a Circle	Peggy Perry Anderson	2004	Various Developmental Disabilities	Houghton Mifflin Company
				ISBN: 0-618-44756-3
CHAPTER BOOKS CONSIDERED	AUTHOR	YEAR	DISABILITY	PUBLISHER
Adam's Alternative Sports Day: An Asperger Story	Jude Welton	2004	Asperger Syndrome	Jessica Kingsley Publishers
				ISBN: 1-84310-300-1
Al Capone Does My Shirts	Gennifer Choldenko	2004	Autism	G. P. Putnam's Sons
				ISBN: 0142403709
Cruise Control	Terry Trueman	2004	Multiple Disabilities	HarperTempest
				ISBN: 0064473775
Holy Smoke: A Bones and the Duchess Mystery	Alexandra Eden	2004	Asperger Syndrome	Allen A. Knoll Publishers
				ISBN: 1888310472
Hunger Moon	Sarah Lamstein	2004	Mental Disabilities	Front Street, Inc.
				ISBN: 1932425055
Jackson Whole Wyoming	Joan Clark	2005	Asperger Syndrome	Autism Asperger Publishing Co.
				ISBN: 1-931282-72-2
Sariah McDuff Will Walk With You	Lee Ann Setzer	2005	Autism	Cedar Fort, Inc.
	(Bob Bonham)			ISBN: 1-55517-744-1
So B. It	Sarah Weeks	2004	Mental Retardation	HarperTrophy
				ISBN: 0-06-441047-1

2006 Award Winners

2006	Keeping up with Roo		Sharlee Glenn (Dan Andreason)	Mental Retardation
2006	So B. It		Sarah Weeks	Mental Retardation

Previous Award Winners

2004	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time		Mark Haddon	Vintage
2002	Me and Rupert Goody		Barbara O'Connor	Mental Retardation
2002	My Brother Sammy		Becky Edwards & David Armitage (illustrator)	Autism
2000	Ian's Walk		Laurie Lears & Karen Ritz (illustrator)	Autism
2000	Tru Confessions		Janet Tashjian	Mental Retardation

Acceptance Speech for the Dolly Gray Award for Children's Literature

Sharlee Glenn for Keeping up with Roo

An acquaintance of mine recently asked where she could buy one of my books. ãYou know,ä she said. ãThe one about handicaps.ä It took me a minute to realize she was talking about Keeping Up with Roo . I've never thought of Keeping Up with Roo as a book about handicaps. To me, it is simply a story about friendship, about growing up, and, above all, about gratitude. You see, Keeping Up with Roo is my own personal tribute to my beloved aunt Martha÷the person who taught me how to read.

Martha and her twin sister, Mildred, were my mother's sisters, and they lived with us most of my growing up years. Martha and Mildred were born in 1938. When they were less than a year old, they were diagnosed with ãsevere mental retardation.ä The doctor told my grandmother that they would probably never walk, let alone talk. My grandmother refused to accept that and treated Mildred and Martha just as she had her five other children. By age three, they were not only walking and talking, but they were running my grandmother ragged and singing wild made-up songs in loud but perfect harmony.

By the time I came along, Mildred and Martha were robust twenty-two-year-olds. And they were my best friends in the whole world. I didn't know they were handicapped. All I knew is that they were big and strong and wonderful and that they always had time to play with me. Mildred loved to put me on her shoulders and lope through the windbreak behind my grandparents' farmhouse. Mildred was the domestic one: she enjoyed playing with dolls, rearranging furniture, and creating beautiful works of art out of twigs and leaves and seeds. Martha was more cerebral: she taught herself how to drive a tractor, play the piano . . . and read. When I was a little girl, Martha could read and write on about a third grade level, and she loved nothing more than playing school with me. She was always the teacher and I, the eager student. Martha taught me my A-B-C's, how to count and add numbers, and, eventually, how to read easy books. My mother didn't even know I could read until one day when I was riding into town with her. I was about four years old. We were just driving along when suddenly I began reading aloud all the signs along the road. My mother almost wrecked the car. ãSharlee!ä she said. ãWhere on earth did you learn to read?ä ãMartha taught me,ä I said.

When my aunt Martha passed away several years ago, I was filled with both a tender sadness and a profound sense of gratitude. One single thought kept running through my mind: She taught me how to read. What a tremendous gift.

But in reality, my aunt Martha taught me much more than that, as did my aunt Mildred. What they really taught me was how to live÷fully, enthusiastically, without bounds or limits. And, for that, I will be forever grateful.

So it is with deep gratitude and in loving memory of my aunts, Martha and Mildred, that I accept this award from the Division of Developmental Disabilites of the Council for Exceptional Children and Special Needs Project. Thank you.

Acceptance Speech for the Dolly Gray Award for Children's Literature

Sarah Weeks for So B. It

It is with great pleasure that I accept the 2006 Dolly Gray Award for Children's Literature in Developmental Disabilities.  I am touched and honored that So B. It has been deemed worthy of this prestigious honor.  Since the book was published, I have traveled across the country visiting with thousands of school children and educators.  It has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my life as an author seeing the way Mama and Heidi and Bernie and Elliot are so readily embraced and accepted by readers both young and old. 

I have received many wonderful letters, a great number of which come to me from families whose members include someone with a disability.  They write to say that they identify with Heidi’s story and that they are grateful for the positive message of the book.  There could be no sweeter music to my ears!

Heidi has a lucky streak when the story begins, and although that streak is broken near the end of the book, she could never really lose her luck.  Her parents may not have had the words to tell her how much she was wanted and loved, but Heidi knew it.  Now, thanks to the Dolly Gray Award, others who might not have otherwise found my book, will come to know it too.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this happen.

Soof.

Sarah Weeks

 

All Books Considered for the Dolly Gray Childrens Literature Award

Eligibility:
 

To be eligible for the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, books must meet the following criteria:

1.    The book must include a character with developmental disabilities.  Developmental disabilities is defined as a condition which occurs before a person is 22 years of age and limits him/her in at least three of seven major life activities (e.g., receptive and expressive language, self-care, and economic self-sufficiency).  Developmental disabilities include people with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, dyslexia, severe emotional disabilities, mental retardation, and other multiple disabilities.

2.    For the picture book award, the book must be recognized as a picture book written for children in story format. Biographies are included.

3.    For the chapter book award, the book must be recognized as a chapter book (generally a novel divided into chapters) written for children or young adults in story format.  This includes easy readers, juvenile fiction, young adult fiction, and biographies.

4.    Non-fiction books (i.e., books that present factual information not in story format) are not included.

5.    The book must have an initial copyright date within a predetermined two year period prior to the award date (e.g., books published 1999-2001 awarded in 2003; 2002-2003 awarded in 2004 ; 2004-2005 awarded in 2006 ).

About Dolly Gray

 

 

 

Dolly Gray with Caregiver
Artwork reprinted with permission of Martha Perske
(Perske: Pencil Portraits 1971-1990; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998)

Dolly Sharpe Gray was born September 20, 1971 in New York City . She was born with severe cerebral palsy, and for many days in the NICU her future was uncertain. When it was clear she would survive, her parents, Lynn and Hod Gray, took her home. Not quite 18 years later she died in her sleep of a respiratory infection.

Dolly's full life was in many ways the life of any little girl and young woman. She had friends and went to school. She went camping and went to parties. To an extent that one might not have anticipated, she participated in the world that we÷not "the rest of us," but all of us÷share. Literature had a lot to do with it.

Like many young people, she loved books÷and for many of the same reasons. Dolly could not walk, and she could not speak. Perhaps because of these limitations, the concentrated messages books bring about diverse people and places were all the more critical to her. It was in part as if the world shared itself with her through them.

Books affected Dolly's life in other ways. We take it for granted that books promote something called "awareness." We sometimes forget that it is hardly a simple matter. With unique power and realism, books tell us about the lives of others, including persons with disabilities. Throughout her life, Dolly was greeted with much acceptance, and benefited from that understanding for which literature is partly responsible.

Each of us knows ourselves better for having encountered ourselves in literature, and books offered Dolly something precious. She enjoyed stories÷none too many available in her time÷showing figures with whom she could identify. Without powerful and accurate depiction of persons with disabilities, literature itself is diminished.

Today there are many more books for young people which give substance to "inclusion." Often they are more factual, yet more creative and truer to life than standard fare in the past. Dolly would be pleased. She would be reading them. Dolly would be thrilled for this award to be named in her honor. She would think the idea of it especially cool, because she knew what sharing is all about.

By Hod Gray
9/28/04
 
About The Council for Exceptional Children and The Division on Developmental Disabilities

The Council for Exceptional Children is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities – children, youth, and young adults with disabilities and/or individuals who are gifted.

The Division on Developmental Disabilities (DDD) advances the education and welfare of persons with cognitive disabilities/mental retardation, autism, and related disabilities and those who serve them. DDD promotes research in the education of persons with developmental disabilities, enhances competency of educators engaged in educational practice for these individuals, and fosters public understanding of developmental disabilities.  DDD supports legislation needed to help accomplish these goals.

DDD also encourages and promotes professional growth, research, and the dissemination and utilization of research findings.

The Council for Exceptional Children
Division on Developmental Disabilities
1110 North Glebe Road, Suite 300,
Arlington, VA 22201-5704
Toll-free:1-888-CEC-SPED
TTY: (text only) 703-264-9446
Fax: 703-264-9494
www.cec.sped.org

About Special Needs Project

Special Needs Project (SNP) is a place to get books about disabilities. Located in Santa Barbara, California, SNP serves families, professionals, agencies and schools worldwide with the largest, most authoritative collection of disability-related materials.

It began in an independent bookstore in Berkeley, California. For several years, the store produced a critical bibliography of the books available to parents at the time. Special Needs Project became a distinct entity in 1989, and it has grown from a local resource to today's catalog featuring hundreds of the best books (including selected audio and video material) in each of more than forty categories. Its Director is Hod Gray.

Special Needs Project is dedicated to making the best information available to those who need it. Adapting an often-repeated saying, Gray says, "Knowledge plus know-how equals power." SNP’s unique experience knowledge base makes it particularly indispensible as consultant and source for libraries, schools and agencies wishing to build special collections in fields such as learning disabilities, autism, assistive technology, inclusion and independent living, disability rights and many others.

Special Needs Project
324 State Street, Suite H
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Telephone: (800) 333-6867
Fax: (805) 962-5087
Web: www.specialneeds.com
 

Impact of the Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award

The framers and sponsors of this award believe the Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award is making a great impact toward the general public’s recognition of the positive societal contributions of individuals with developmental disabilities, greater understanding and acceptance of teachers and school-aged peers of students with developmental disabilities, and encouragement of authors and illustrators to publish quality literature including characters with developmental disabilities.


Expression of Thanks

This award would not have come to fruition without the dedicated work and creative insight of many individuals. Special thanks are insufficient to express our deep gratitude to those who worked on this project, and to those who will continue to make this award significant in the field: the DDD Executive Board, DDD Publications Chair, DDD Dolly Gray Award Chairs and Reviewers, Special Needs Project, the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the eligible and award-winning books, Dolly Gray and other individuals with developmental disabilities and their families worldwide.