Dyslexic Positive Libraries Initiative

Book Lists

We are always on the hunt for books with the following characteristics:

  • Authentic characters
  • Written or illustrated by dyslexic or neurodivergent authors
  • A positive or balanced portrayal of dyslexia and other neurotypes (we carefully vet for harm or discrimination)
  • Literary, artistic, or informational merit
  • Nonfiction text that has key word reference page
  • Nonfiction text that includes key word pronunciations alongside the word
  • Accessible reading levels on diverse topics of interest through teen years

These lists are continuously updated as new books and resources are reviewed. Enjoy!

Dyslexic Ages 3+

  • A Walk in the Words
  • A Walk in the Words
  • Xtraordinary People: Made By Dyslexia
  • Ben and Emma’s Big Hit
  • Molly’s Great Discovery: A Book About Dyslexia and Self-advocacy
  • Abdul’s Story
  • Dogman, Cat Kid Comic Club, and The Adventures of Captain Underpants
  • The Lion and the Mouse
  • If You’re So Smart, How Come You Can’t Spell Mississippi?
  • The Junkyard Wonders
  • Dyslexic Brains Are Beautiful Brains: Beautifully Unique, Beautifully Perfect, Beautifully You!
  • Dream Builder: The Story of Architect
  • Dyslexia Explained

Neurodivergent Age 3+

  • Too Much!: An Overwhelming Day
  • Flap Your Hands: A Celebration of Stimming
  • The Rainbow Brain
  • A Day With No Words

Dyslexia Books 9+

  • The Cross of Lead
  • The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
  • The Wild Book
  • Close to Famous
  • Hooky
  • Maggot Moon
  • Brown Girl Dreaming
  • The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
  • I Wanted to be a Pilot: The Making of a Tuskegee Airman
  • The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel
  • Creative, Successful, Dyslexic: 23 High Achievers Share Their Stories
  • Hacking the Code: The Ziggety Zaggety Road of a Dyslexic Kid Wonderfully Wired Brains: An Introduction to the World of Neurodiversity
  • Egypt’s Fire
  • May B. by Caroline Starr Rose

Neurodivergent 9+

  • Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different: True Tales of Amazing Boys Who Changed the World without Killing Dragons

Dyslexic Books YA+

  • Six of Crows
  • Crooked Kingdom
  • A Dragonbird in the Fern
  • Monday’s Not Coming
  • Loveboat Reunion
  • Black, Brilliant and Dyslexic: Neurodivergent Heroes Tell their Stories 
  • The Dyslexic Advantage (2nd edition)
  • Pawn: The Blackcoat Rebellion
  • Spellwright
  • An Elegant Façade

Neurodivergent Books YA+

  • Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive, Outside the Lines
  • StrengthsFinder 2.0
  • One Year Wiser: 365 Illustrated Meditations

Dyslexia Adult

  • Dyslexic Advantage (2nd edition)
  • This is Dyslexia
  • The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning
  • An Elegant Façade
  • The Drool Room
  • My Dyslexia by Philip Schultz
  • Overcoming Dyslexia (2nd Edition)
  • The Twyford Code
  • Reversals: A Personal Account of Victory over Dyslexia
  • Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
  • Black, Brilliant and Dyslexic: Neurodivergent Heroes Tell their Stories
  • An Elegant Façade (Hawthorne House, #2)
  • Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive, Outside the Lines
  • Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes
  • Death in a Nutshell: An Anthropology Whodunnit
  • Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive

Neurodivergent Adult

  • All Brains Belong Neuroinclusive Healthcare & Community Digital Library​
  • Autism Level UP!
  • The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work
  • Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent’s Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After
  • Rest is Rebellion
  • A Failure of Imagination: How the Healthcare System Fails Neurodivergent People—and What We’re Doing Instead
  • The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs
  • The Kiss Quotient
  • The Neurodiversity Edge
  • NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
  • The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
  • Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive, Outside the Lines
  • 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation–And Making Your Own Life Easier
  • The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal
  • Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes
  • StrengthsFinder 2.0
  • Unlearning Shame: How We Can Reject Self-Blame Culture and Reclaim Our Power
  • How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It)
  • Death in a Nutshell: An Anthropology Whodunnit
  • The Reason I Jump
  • Seeing What Others Cannot See: The Hidden Advantages of Visual Thinkers and Differently Wired Brains
  • How to Keep House While Drowning
  • Laziness Does Not Exist
  • Something More
  • Strong Female Character
  • Ten Steps to Nanette
  • Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive
  • What My Bones Know: A Journey of Healing from Complex Trauma

Decodable books follow a phonics scope & sequence. Below is a 6 category scope an sequence that we use at the DPLI.

  • Glossary of literacy terms
  • Primer (CVC single syllable)
  • Early Elementary (CVC, VCE single & two syllables)
  • Upper Elementary (CVC, VCE single & two syllables, r-controlled vowel syllables, VV and inflective suffix)
  • Early Middle Grades (CVC, VCE single & two syllables, r-controlled vowel syllables VV syllables and lesson common spelling patterns such as alk, ought, igh suffix and changes to the word base and CLe syllable type)
  • Upper Middle Grades (CVC, VCE single & two syllables, r-controlled vowel syllables VV syllables and lesson common spelling patterns such as alk, ough, igh suffix and changes to the word base, prefix and stable final syllables -ture, etc)
  • High School & Adult (CVC, VCE single & two syllables, r-controlled vowel syllables VV syllables and lesson common spelling patterns such as alk, ought, igh, study of roots to read and spell words with medial vowel, diverse vowel stress up to 6 syllables)

  • Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education
  • Academic Writing and Dyslexia: A Visual Guide to Writing at University
  • Climbing The Ladder of Reading & Writing: Meeting the Needs of ALL Learners
  • Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
  • Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching
  • Homophones Visualized
  • How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better than Any Machine… for Now
  • I Morph, We Morph, You Morph!: Common Prefixes
  • It’s Possible!: A Leadership Plan for Implementing Quality Reading Instruction and Ensuring Literacy for All
  • The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System & How to Fix It.
  • Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives: How Students’ Reading Achievement Has Been Held Back and What We Can Do About It
  • Literacy Foundations for English Learners: A Comprehensive Guide to Evidence-Based Instruction
  • Making Words Stick: A Four-Step Instructional Routine to Power Up Orthographic Mapping
  • Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills
  • Morpheme Magic
  • MTSS for Reading Improvement: A Leader’s Tool Kit for Schoolwide Success
  • Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence to Achieve Well-Being and Success.
  • Preparing Children for Reading Success: Hands-On Activities for Librarians, Educators, and Caregivers
  • Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read
  • Reading Isn’t Optional: Fulfilling the Promise of Literacy for Secondary Students
  • The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists
  • Recipe for Reading
  • Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers
  • Uncovering the Logic of English
  • Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide

This is a weed list to assist library workers with weeding projects and diversity audits. Criteria includes:

  • Author’s lack of personnel/lived experience
  • Negative or pathologizing language
  • Shaming or punitive practices towards youth
  • Lack of literary, artistic, or informational merit of the book

Weed List

  • A Work in Progress: Behavior Management Strategies & A Curriculum for Intensive Behavioral Treatment of Autism
  • Applied Behavior Analysis
  • Bright Kids Who Can’t Keep Up by Ellen Braaten and Brian Willoughby
  • Dyslexia by Ann O. Squire
  • It’s Called Dyslexia by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos
  • It’s Time For School!: Building Quality ABA Educational Programs for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders
  • My Life With Dyslexia by Mari Schuh
  • My Life with Tourette Syndrome by Mari Schuh
  • Understanding Dyslexia by Jessica Rusick
  • Understanding Disorders of the Brain

This is a key word/phrases source document for library use to identify discredited literacy materials within collections, and prevent erroneous purchase of discredited materials and books. These include discredited materials espousing debunked literacy theories, mis-guided approaches to schooling & instruction and predictable text intended for children to read independently that do not systematically engage their developing decoding skills.

This information will help library workers update collections, repurpose text within the collection and support the purchase of high quality evidence-based additions to collections while developing high-value, relevant Literacy Nook in support of engaging all children and youth in learning to read. 

Currently 32% of U.S. 12th graders do not yet have basic reading skills (NAEP, 2024) and 28% U.S. adults are not yet reading fluently (PIAAC 2023). DPLI Citation List.

Literacy & instructional methods matter.

Cover of "Pete the Cat's MARS MISSION. Level 1. I Can Read!" The "level 1" text is highlighted with a red outline and a red thumbsdown icon. Repurpose a Book 1) Cover the “Level 1 I Can Read!” and other literacy misinformation. 2) Repurpose as a fun book in the general collection; not a literacy learning tool. 3) Create a separate literacy nook with decodable books and effective, Science of Reading-aligned resources.

Discredited Literacy Theory & Literacy Instructional Programs

  • Whole Language
  • Balanced Literacy
  • High Frequency / Sight Word Memorization
  • Reading Recovery
  • Units of Study
  • Units of Study curriculum
  • Teachers College of Reading and Writing Project, TCRWP or “The Project”
  • Classroom Library Series published by Heinemann 

Discredited Literacy Theorists and Instructional Program Developers

  • Fountas and Pinnell
  • Kenneth Goodman
  • Frank Smith
  • Yetta Goodman
  • Regie Routman
  • Irene C. Fountas 
  • Marie Clay
  • Gay Sue Pinnell (founding director of Literacy Council of North America)
  • Lucy Calkins
  • Dorothy Watson
  • Carolyn Burke
  • Jerome Harste

Discredited Reading and Spelling Instruction Methods

  • Spelling quizzes and rote memorization
  • 3-Cueing
  • Skip the Word and Come Back
  • Check the Picture
  • Look Closely at the Picture
  • Make Your Best Guess
  • Ask for a Told (someone to tell you the word) and Keep Going
  • Think of a Word that is Like the Word Your Trying to Read
  • Act out What You’ve Read so Far
  • Predict What’s Going to Happen (repeatedly through the text reading)

Discredited Text Written for Teaching Children to Read

  • Ready Readers
  • Leveled Readers
  • Guided Readers
  • System 44 published by Scholastic
  • Predictable Text
  • Meli Series

Repurposing Leveled Books

For otherwise excellent children’s books, one option would be to repurpose them by removing the literacy misinformation and keeping what is otherwise a perfectly fine book and reshelving it as a general text, rather than in the literacy hub, among text cataloged as supportive for emergent, developing and striving readers.  

Search the titles of books written for children and youth to determine if they are intended for use with whole language reading instructional programs. When books are donated to libraries or intended as a “gift” to be used for families to take home for free, this is of particular importance.

Weed or Repurpose List

  • An I Can Read Book
  • Art of Teaching Reading
  • Bad Seed Goes to the Library
  • Childrens Learn to Read Books
  • Dear Dragon Goes to the Library
  • Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Book List
  • (Many) Geisel Award winners 😭
  • Green Light Readers
  • Hooray for Reading Day!
  • I Can Read!
  • Meet the Sight Words
  • My Beginning Readers
  • National Geographic Kids Readers
  • Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement
  • Piggy & Gerald series 😭
  • Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
  • Scholastic Little Leveled Readers
  • Scholastic Sight Word Readers
  • Solving the Reading Riddle: The Librarian’s Guide to Reading Instruction
  • Step into Reading
  • School Zone Start to Read!
  • Guided Science Readers
  • Scholastic Readers
  • Reading Recovery
  • Learn to Read: Sight Words Storybook
  • This Is Balanced Literacy, Grades K-6
  • Whole Language, the Librarian, and Children’s Literature Beyond the Basal Reader
  • World of Reading
Watercolor background that reads: Safe Space for Literacy Learning. You don’t need to know anything about literacy. This is a safe space to: Make mistakes Ask questions Grow our skills together Here at the DPLI, we are all on a lifelong literacy journey and we are so glad you are joining us!