Accidents of Nature

Harriet McBryde Johnson's semi-autobiographical YA novel, set in 1970 at a summer camp for teens with disabilities, is one of the rare books that puts disability experience fully at its center rather than on its margins. Seventeen-year-old Jean arrives believing herself no different from anyone else; she leaves having been fundamentally challenged by her new friend Sara's sharp-edged disability rights perspective. Johnson — herself a disability rights attorney with cerebral palsy — writes with insider authority that shows on every page. Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Disability Studies Quarterly all recognized the book's unusual intellectual and emotional honesty. The honest caveat is that Sara's activist voice can tip into speechifying, and the ideological density may feel heavier than some readers want from a coming-of-age story. For mature teens interested in social justice history, this is bracing and essential.