PBParty Entry #19 : Building a Better Wheelchair

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GENRE: Diverse, STEM/STEAM, Non-Fiction

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WORDS: 950

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Query:

Dear PB Party Judges, Agents, & Editors,

The first wheelchair was certainly an upgrade from the wheelbarrows that were used to transport people with disabilities before that! But a prototype is rarely perfect, and as time passed concerns emerged. Wheelchairs users viewed each obstacle as an opportunity to improve wheelchair design, leading to continuous enhancements over the following centuries.

“Building a Better Wheelchair” is a 950 word nonfiction picture book that traces the history of wheelchairs from wheelbarrows and handcranks to the high-tech wheelchairs of today. It emphasizes the important role that people with disabilities played in the development of wheelchairs and highlights that those with disabilities know their needs best.

This manuscript traces the evolution of an object over places and time, similar to “Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide As the Sky” and “The Shape of Things: How Mapmakers See Our World”, but would be the only picture book on the market about the history of the wheelchair. This book will appeal to aspiring inventors, as well as to all parents, teachers, and librarians that want to increase disability representation in the books they’re sharing with their young ones.

I am a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician who works with patients with disabilities and teaches disability awareness to medical professionals. I am an active member of SCBWI and participate in a monthly critique group.

Thank you for your consideration.

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Excerpt:

“I love my wheelchair. It’s my favorite color and fast!”
“Mine’s faster!”
“Mine’s prettier!”
“But where did wheelchairs come from?” [spoken by children in wheelchairs, including narrator]

Long ago, people with disabilities were carried or pushed in wheelbarrows…

Spain, 1595
But when King Philip II had trouble walking, a wheelbarrow seemed too ordinary for royalty.
[Narrator: “A king can’t be carted around like a sack of potatoes!”]

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What inspired you to write this story & what do you have in common with it:

I was inspired to write this book after realizing how few picture books include characters with disabilities. The themes in this book of recognizing the capability and intelligence of people with disabilities and acknowledging that they are the experts on their own needs are the same themes I teach medical professionals. I love the idea of planting those seeds in younger minds through picture books.