The Schneider Family Book Awards is donated by Dr. Katherine Schneider, and honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. Three annual awards are presented for the best Teen, Middle School and Children’s Book.

2010 Picture Book Winner

DJANGO
Bonnie Christensen
Flash Point
ISBN: 9781596434226
Ages 5-9
32 pages
September 2009

Born into a travelling gypsy family, young Django Reinhardt taught himself guitar at an early age. He was soon acclaimed as the "Gypsy Genius" and "Prodigy Boy," but one day his world changed completely when a fire claimed the use of his fretting hand. Folks said Django would never play again, but with passion and perseverance he was soon setting the world's concert stages ablaze.

2010 Middle School Award Winner

ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ISBN: 9781416963783
Ages 10-14
208 pages
March 2009

Jason Blake is an autistic 12-year-old living in a neurotypical world. Most days it's just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across PhoenixBird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does.

Jason can be himself when he writes and he thinks that PhoenixBird --- her name is Rebecca --- could be his first real friend. But as desperate as Jason is to meet her, he's terrified that if they do meet, Rebecca will only see his autism and not who Jason really is.

2010 Teen Award Winner

MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD
Francisco X. Stork
Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780545054744
Ages 12-up
320 pages
March 2009

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear --- part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify --- and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world."

There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising co-worker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file -- a picture of a girl with half a face -- that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.