Wow, what a fantastic book! The illustrations are vibrant and stunning and introduce inspiring people who have accomplished a lot and happen to have a disability. Included are people in a huge variety of professions, from more famous athletes, musicians, great minds, to activists and even a breakdancer. 'I Am Not A Label' does a wonderful job introducing young readers to a huge scope of careers and innumerable ways people can be successful while also introducing many disabilities both visible and invisible.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Wide Eyed Editions for providing this ARC.

#IAmNotaLabel #NetGalley

The title says it all I Am Not a Label. Cerrie Burnell tells/shows us how important it is to see beyond a disability. This book is an anthology of 34 individuals, who at some point in their life became identified as blind, deaf, having polio, having osteomalacia, cancer, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, autism, mental illness, motor neuron disease, achondroplasia, polio, cancer, etc. For all of these artists, athletes, activists, performers, engineers, writers, scientists, scholars, etc. life presented a challenge. They fought through the misconceptions of others and created a fulfilling life for themselves while contributing greatly to the world. You will read of individuals from the United States, Jordan, Nigeria, Prussia, France, Mexico, England, Australia, Costa Rica, India, Ghana, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Burnell tells us about each of these amazing individuals with a lovely 2 page spread illustrating a part of their life's work and a one page narrative of their life's story. It is an insightful, inspiring read that could be the jumping off point for many wonderful in class discussions or suggestions for further research into art or performing or being a scholar, etc. This book is best read in segments. Each individual deserves their own recognition.

I highly recommend this book for public and school libraries as well as homes.

I Am Not a Label is an impressive book highlighting some of the most famous people with disabilities. You can recognize almost all of these names. I have known they most had a disability, but didn't know what exactly it was or how it happened. This is a very informative book, with lengthy descriptions of these people's lives. The illustrations were vibrant, and added greatly to the story. It was interesting, and something I would recommend for many older classrooms. Children will recognize many of these names and the stories told were thought-provoking. My son is 7 and this might be a little difficult for him to read himself and some of the terms would be hard for him to understand, but I think older than that would definitely benefit from this book. I would highly recommend this one.

This book is a great book to show how we are all different and have struggles but that anything is possible. I would love to show a student this book if they are feeling down. This book is a quick and easy read with beautiful illustrations.

Having a disability or being disabled, depending on how you self-identify, can be isolating. Especially in our current society that doesn’t always celebrate the contributions of individuals who are different. Cerrie Burnell introduces readers to many extraordinary individuals with disabilities who have done exceptional things with their minds and bodies. Each figure is profiled in a one-page vignette with a corresponding full-page illustration.

In my opinion, the feature that really stands out in I Am Not a Label is the illustrations. There is an expressiveness in each image that communicates to the reader the passion and drive that inspired each of the individuals profiled. There seems to be a common trend in children’s biographies of capturing an extraordinary figure’s life on a single page. While this might encourage some readers to do further research, I am not sure that the one-page biographies in I Am Not a Label do justice to those they are profiling. I think it would have been beneficial to have spent more time with each person so that readers get a better sense of the power of these accomplishments.

This book is outstanding!! I feel like this should be a part of every students education. It should be shared in elementary classrooms. It should be part of psychology courses and special education training. This book took a variety of famous people from long ago, up until now, and shared the struggle each battled. This book shows so beautifully what the title state, "I Am Not a Label." None of the people in the stories allowed their 'disability' or 'difference' from following their dreams and succeeding. Very inspirational. I know it is a book that I will reference again and again.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I Am Not a Label is a new and important addition to the disability canon. It begins with historical figures and takes us to current day. The book covers a wide range of disabilities and genders. This book belongs in every library.

I really enjoyed this one, I think it is so important for kids to learn about disabilities, struggles, & mental health. I like the different races and orientations that were also offered. This would make an excellent gift for any kid or any person in general, actually!

The name of the book is pretty self explanatory - I Am Not a Label: 34 artists, thinkers, athletes and activists with disabilities from past and present. It's well written and has colorful and fun illustrations. It reminds me of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women (in a good way). We need more books like this, we need to hear more inspiring stories.

This is an excellent book! The biographical snippets for each entry were well written and compelling and the illustrations that accompanied each person were gorgeous. If I had found this book when I was in middle school, this would have been one of those books that would have inspired me to lookup more in depth biographies on many of figures depicted in this book. The book is made of diverse figures both historical and contemporary, and I loved that people with mental health issues were included in this collection.

I am excited to see for the moment I'll get to process this book for my library to sing its praises to patrons and recommend it.

Fantastic encyclopedia of a diverse group of accomplished people in a variety of fields such as science, math, sports, art, dance and more. I appreciated that the text wasn't littered with people well-known such as Helen Keller, Matisse, Stevie Wonder but also included people that many have not heard of. Even better was the author's sensitivity of not labeling the person with a disability but explaining the complications a person faced and how they were overcome.

My only critique of the work is that some of the fonts make it difficult to read the names of the people. As a book meant for children it would have been better to use very clear fonts to make it accessible to the most readers.

This is a must need text for school and public libraries. Congratulations to the author for bringing to public knowledge the people who have been long ignored.

This book is a great introduction to disability representation for kids, and I was pleased that they included a wide range of both physical, mental, invisible, and chronic conditions and the profiles were inclusive of POC and LGBTQ people with a diagnosis. The illustrations are beautifully detailed, drawn in a style complementary to the era, culture, and personality of each profile. The descriptions for each person are just detailed enough to tell the broad strokes of each person's life without dumbing down the content too much for child readers. Perfect for parents and educators hoping to broaden their children/students' perspectives about disability and bring the movement into the 21st century.

Absolutely fantastic!

I loved the message of this book. Each person was celebrated for who he or she is and what they were able to accomplish with his or her life. There was a multitude of famous people depicting centuries of time. I loved the inclusion of mental health into this book as well. I think it is a great message for students that do struggle with mental health disorders. This book was brilliantly done, and it is one that I will for sure be adding to my classroom library.

This is a very empowering book that highlights the limitations now-famous people have had to deal with throughout their childhood/lives due to their disabilities, but also shines a light on how it didn't stop them from dreaming big and achieving what they wanted! I think it really shows beautifully how society is where the limitations lie, not with disabilities! I love how this has people from all over the world too, and not just the US!
The illustrations are also so beautiful and I think the illustrator really captured each person in their spreads!

This beautifully illustrated book shares the stories of thirty-four disabled people who have triumphed in various fields. The author's note at the beginning explains that as a disabled child, she struggled with the lack of representation around her, and she writes these bios with sensitivity to the different experiences of each person, never presenting them in monolithic ways or enshrining them as superhuman inspirations.

She strikes the right balance between celebrating those who have overcome difficult odds and dignifying each person as an individual, not as an inspiration for someone able-bodied. However, I think that some of the bios are overly rosy and cheerful. The author often goes into detail about a subject's bodily struggles and social obstacles, but in some cases, she glosses over these too quickly to write about the person's accomplishments. I know that she was dealing with word-count constraints and writing a book for children, but in some cases, it seemed like she wasn't being completely forthcoming about people's trauma and suffering.

Still, that is only a minor complaint for a book that accomplishes its aims so well. It is very educational, and it is amazingly global and diverse, representing lots of different time periods, races, and nations. Even though I was already familiar with some of these historical figures and celebrities, I had never heard of most of them, and I am glad that I had the chance to learn so much from this.

This book addresses disability in a clear and helpful way, and raises awareness through its sections on mental health struggles and invisible disabilities. I am impressed with how educational and moving this book is without ever becoming didactic or saccharine, and recommend it as a great resource for individual readers and schools.

I am stunned about how many people in this book I knew about but didn´t know that they had disabilities. “I Am Not A Label” is a wonderful collection of brilliant minds, illustrated in the most wonderful way possible, fun to read and filled with power and knowledge. I dearly love books that showcase wonderful minds with beautiful illustrations but this book finds a place in the top. First of, the illustrations blew me away. I´ve rarely seen art so beautiful and fluid like this. Every page feels like a whole new world and you can basically see the character of the person and all their work portrayed in art. The stories about the people were fun to read, easy and quick enough. It made me feel powerful to read about all these awesome people who changed the world and fought for what´s right, created wonderful things and stayed true to themselves. I hope there are kids out there who read this book or get it read by their parents and wonder at these people, who are just like them and if nothing could stop them, why should anything stop disabled kids to come? Books like these are massively important and educate even people in older ages. I wouldn´t be mad if there would be another collection of disabled minds coming out sometime soon but until then I feel motivated to read up on some of the mentioned people.

I Am Not a Label is a fantastic anthology of biographies of people with disabilities. Each one-page biography is accompanied by a bold illustration that makes the text come to life. The biographies focus on artists, scientists, authors, athletes, and more and includes people throughout history up to the present. There are the typical Hellen Keller and Beethoven biographies, but also nods to Lil Wayne, Peter Dinklage, and Lady Gaga, as well as people who were new to me like Catalina Devandas and Wanda Diaz-Merced. The reading level is appropriate for independent readers grades 2 and up. It is a suitable book for a classroom or school library to teach about how a person with a disability should not feel limited in what they can achieve. It would also be great to use in all grades (k-12) when teaching empathy and perspective taking.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by #NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book that I've read that laid out historical figures with disabilities, with illustrations and thoughtful descriptions! The book is very pretty and easy to read, I like that it included diversity in racial and gender identity as well as including people with mental health disorders. Many of these figures are historical - and I wondered if it would be feel relatable and representative for children that are coming of age in a time with more social media figures that are part of the disability community. However, the people included in this book have make significant contributions to our society that I think it's important children know about (and Lady Gaga will ALWAYS be relevant!). I looked through the glossary and resources in the back and found the resources to be out of the date - the blog hasn't been updated in a while and the book site did not seem user friendly. I feel like this area could be updated or maybe point to more general resources on disabilities. Overall, this would make a great gift for any kid!