About the book
“The best kind of book about changing the world, We Move Together doesn’t tell us how we should change things, it just reminds us that we can”
Cory Silverberg, educator and author of What Makes a Baby and Sex Is a Funny Word
The author-illustrator team created We Move Together from their unique and varying perspectives as disabled people, parents, disability activists, and disability studies scholars. Together, they pooled their creativity in response to their shared frustration in finding books to read with their own children and friends that showcase positive representations of disabled, D/deaf, and neurodiverse communities, or that engage with disability justice and challenge ableism.
We Move Together provides affirming and anti-oppressive depictions of disability culture and community. Many children’s books on disability depict disability as a tragic and isolating personal condition to be overcome and very few focus on disability as the basis for community or explicitly engage with disability justice social movements. We Move Together shows how people’s experiences of disability can be impacted by issues of social injustice like inaccessibility and ableism. The book also depicts how disability culture and community can be transformative and joyful, making visible the ways that disability is an important part of people’s identity and a desirable part of our communities and world.
We Move Together importantly centers characters and communities that are typically underrepresented in children’s literature. According to a report published in the Toronto Star, only 3.8% of Canadian children’s books published in 2019 featured a character with a visible disability and only 1.7% featured a character with an invisible disability. We Move Together is is truly unique in its expansive representation of diverse bodies, minds and experiences: readers are introduced to a mixed-ability, multi-racial, many gendered, and intergenerational cast of characters who are united by their desire to build a more accessible world.
We Move Together offers children and grown-ups alike with information, context, and language to speak about disability identity and culture, accessibility, disability justice, and ableism. The book’s illustrations are rich with detail, inviting multiple readings and discussions. The kid-friendly glossary at the end of the book enhances the story by supporting the reader with appropriate vocabulary and terminology and also provides background information that adds to the illustrations. The glossary introduces the reader to real-life disabled artists and activists working to challenge inaccessibility and ableism in their communities. We Move Together is composed of several vignettes – smaller stories that take place within the larger story. Each of these vignettes highlights a different theme related to disability and social justice such as accessibility, interdependence, communication, community, and conflict.
Check out our free, open-source learning guide which offers context, vocabulary, discussion questions, learning activities, printable games and templates, and other resources to support conversations about disability, accessibility, social justice, and community building.
Download our flyer about the book! ⭐
Praise for We Move Together
“We Move Together is a love letter to the next generation of disabled kids, and a provocation for their nondisabled peers to rethink an ableist society’s assumptions about how our bodies should move, what they should look like, and how our brains should work. Its pages unapologetically offer images of visibly queer, trans, Muslim, Black, Brown, Native, and Asian people representing many different disabled experiences, without suggesting that multiply marginalized people need to be justified or explained. This gorgeously illustrated book offers a powerful message rooted in the Disability Justice movement — we care for and love each other, and we move together, with nobody left behind.”
Lydia X.Z. Brown, disability justice advocate and founder/director of Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, & Empowerment
“We Move Together is a book I wish I had read as a kid. It covers themes of disability justice, care, community, and friendship. It’s a beautiful book that explains, through simple words and pictures, that no one is disposable and that everyone has value. If you plan to teach your children about disability and access, start with this book.”
Sarah Jama, Co-Founder, Disability Justice Network of Ontario
“The detailed and charming illustrations in We Move Together show us a world of cooperation, equality, community, love and friendship, which I believe is a world we all would be happy to live in.”
Brian Selznick, writer and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret
“We Move Together makes me want to move with joy! Finally there is a book I can share with my kiddo that expresses the joy of disability community; the playfulness of different ways of moving; and the fun of creating access — while also showing the challenges of ableism. This book can grow with my daughter as she goes from asking questions about the beautifully illustrated pictures and engaging words, to when she can grapple with the many key ideas of disability justice provided at the end of the book. A delightful and much needed celebration of disability community, and most importantly, as my daughter says, it’s fun!“
Sunaura Taylor, author of Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation
“We Move Together is full of gorgeous illustrations and stories of our communities in all of their varied differences. Rooted in disability justice, this book offers ways of practicing interdependence, collective care, and transformative justice. As a Black, Mad and disabled parent, I am eager to read this book in our family — finally a book in which we can see ourselves reflected! We Move Together is essential reading for all bookshelves!”
Syrus Marcus Ware, co-founder of Black Lives Matter – Canada
“Brightly illustrated and with a helpful glossary, We Move Together is a sensitive and joyful jumping-off point to begin the vital conversation about accessibility.”
Saleema Nawaz, author of Songs for the End of the World
“This playful, inventive, and first of its kind introduction to Disability Justice is the book we have been waiting for (even if we didn’t know it). We Move Together is full of practical magic. It’s grounded in a world children will recognize—full of ice cream, public transit, parks, and play—but it opens up possibilities of worlds and futures we dream of. It invites us to think and talk about disability and difference with love and respect. The best kind of book about changing the world, We Move Together doesn’t tell us how we should change things, it just reminds us that we can. If you have a body, you’re going to want to read this book!”
Cory Silverberg, educator and author of What Makes a Baby and Sex Is a Funny Word
“This is the book I’ve been waiting for!”
Alice Wong, Founder and Director of the Disability Visibility Project