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Module 2 - Book Review 3 - UNBROKEN: 13 STORIES STARRING DISABLED TEENS: edited by Marieke Nijkamp


Module 2 – Book Review 3 

Review of Marieke Nijkamp’s UNBROKEN: 13 STORIES STARRING DISABLED TEENS Review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University. 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Nikjkamp, Marieke. (2018) UNBROKEN: 13 STORIES STARRING DISABLED TEENS. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). ISBN: 978-0374306502 

2. PLOT SUMMARY 

In Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, Marieke Nijkamp presents a young adult anthology that features thirteen short stories about disabled teens written by authors who are actually disabled themselves. The stories cover multiple genres that include realistic fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. Each story manages to explore everyday experiences like friendship, first love, family conflict, travel, and, of course, personal dreams. Each story focuses on the teen navigating various challenges that are both related and unrelated to their disability. These stories show their complexity as individuals to shake traditional stereotypes. This collection focuses on disabilities, including physical, mental health, chronic illness, and neurodivergence. It doesn’t just talk about the disabilities but also includes diverse identities in race, culture, gender, and sexuality. The stories don’t focus on trying to overcome a disability but try to highlight a person’s identity, self-acceptance, and finding a way to live a full, meaningful life. The characters in the stories face internal struggles and social barriers, but they show growth as they learn to fight for themselves and pursue their dreams and work to achieve their goals. This anthology shows, over and over, themes of resilience and being the hero of your own story. 

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS  

Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, edited by Marieke Nijkamp, is not only a literary collection but a statement about representation. This anthology uses genre as a literary device to explore each disability in both creative and symbolic ways. The first-person narration helps to create authentic perspectives of disabled voices. There are elements like magical curses, space travel, and heroic journeys that function as metaphors for social barriers, independence, and acceptance of who they are. Symbolism appears throughout in motifs of movement, and the episodic structure gives weight to the idea that each disability experience is completely unique from others. 

The collection is socially significant because it challenges stereotypes and does so by rejecting any ideas that show a disability as a tragedy or inspiration for others. The take for these stories presents disabled teens as complex people, they are and their journeys to figure out friendship, family, identity, and romance. The anthology focuses on the challenges that come from ableism and inaccessible environments. One major idea seen throughout the collection is intersectionality, where multiple identities overlap to shape someone’s experience at the same time. Each identity is separate, but actually comes together with others to create certain advantages or challenges and even unique forms of discrimination. This collection helps demonstrate the importance of inclusive representation in young adult literature. 

Personally, I was drawn to this title simply because of my oldest child. He is 8 years old and currently struggling with his self-awareness that he is different from his friends and other people due to his deafness and use of cochlear implants. This year has marked a difference with his new realizations. I am always looking for this type of literature. What is interesting, though, is that it was one of the stories about mental health that really drew me in and affected me. The Ballad of Weary Daughters by Kristine Wyllys overwhelmed me with comparisons not to myself, but my childhood and what I grew up around with others suffering. I think it is natural to sometimes block out trauma, but it made me think and consider from a different perspective as a 40-year-old mother of two boys (one with special needs). This whole anthology was thought-provoking and, honestly, an incredible experience. 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) 

Booklist starred (September 1, 2018 (Vol. 115, No. 1)) 

The 13 stories in this brilliant anthology feature teenagers with physical disabilities, mental illness, anxiety disorders, or autism. Teens disappointed by the lack of nuanced depictions of disability in YA fiction will cheer for these compassionate, engaging, and masterfully written stories. 

Kirkus Reviews starred (August 1, 2018) 

These tales feature teens with different mental illnesses and physical, sensory, and intellectual disabilities, but all share common threads: no overcoming disability, magical healing, or disability-as-metaphor; just kids shaped by their bodies and minds, their experiences, and the worlds they inhabit. For intersectional representations of disabled kids leading complex lives—sometimes painful, sometimes funny, never sentimentally inspirational—a vital collection.  

Publishers Weekly (October 22, 2018) 

Nijkamp (This Is Where It Ends) presents 13 fictional short stories written by authors with disabilities and featuring variously abled teens. Authors including William Alexander, Corinne Duyvis, and Heidi Heilig represent varied genres and diverse protagonists. More often than not, what makes these protagonists different proves far less relevant than the universal emotions they express.  

School Library Journal (September 1, 2018) 

The disabilities of the authors and the characters in the stories include physical differences and myriad types of neurodivergence. In every story, the protagonists face challenges, both internal and external; the struggle with the disability is the main challenge in some entries while the presence of a disability or difference is more subtle in others. The collection of stories is eclectic-not every selection will appeal to every reader-but there is something for everyone in this volume.  

5. CONNECTIONS  

Related Books - Other books about the themes of identity, voice, social struggle, disability, and resilience 

  • Cammie McGovern. SAY WHAT YOU WILL. ISBN: 978-0062271129 

  • Francesca Zappia. ELIZA AND HER MONSTERS. ISBN: 978-0062290144 

Enrichment Activities -     

  • Ask students to identify the barriers the character faces (social, environmental, emotional, or systemic). 

  • Have students write a short journal entry from the character’s point of view that describes their feelings about being misunderstood or underestimated. 

  • Have students research an accessibility or inclusion issue that affects teens (school accessibility, mental health supports, representation in media, etc.). Students can create: 

  • poster or infographic 

  • short presentation 

  • social media awareness campaign 

 

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