What’s Wrong with Timmy?
Shriver
2001
Submitter: This book is part of a series by Shriver for helping kids accept the fact that bad stuff happens to people and no one knows why. There is another book we own by Shriver about Alzheimer’s. Kate, our main character, learns through colored pencil illustrations that Timmy may be disabled, but he tries his best to be just like everyone else. The book is very wordy, definitely something I wouldn’t read to any kids. But the kicker for me is that it uses the term “mental retardation.” As far as I know, even as a medical term, retardation was not used as a diagnosis any more by 2001, though I may be mistaken. I’ve included more pictures of the text, because the illustrations are rather bland and forgettable.
Holly: I have yet to see the perfect “explain our differences” picture book. They either have weird illustrations or too many words or questionable terminology. This one is better than many, I’d say, but I do agree that there are too many words per page. I think it could be said just as nicely in a sentence or two per page with words kids can understand (and words they should be encouraged to use).
Awful Library Books 