Shit Bag by Xena Knox (Hachette) and I Am, You Are by Ashley Harris Whaley, illustrated by Hannah Wood (Ladybird Books, Penguin Random House) are the entries selected by IBBY UK for inclusion in the 2025 Outstanding Books for Children with Disabilities List.

This list comprises forty titles selected from 200 submissions from IBBY sections around the world. This year’s final selection came from 24 countries and includes 18 languages.

Shit Bag is the story of Freya who is seventeen and who needs a colostomy bag. It explores in heartfelt and often dark detail – there is a lot of swearing – Freya’s process of accepting the bag and what it means for her.  It also discusses other people’s often negative attitudes towards bowel disease and those who have it. This will be a very affirming book for any teen who has felt different and ostracised because of their medical needs.

Knox’s willingness to take the reader as far into Freya’s journey, emotionally and physically, as she does, may shock some readers but it is this quality which makes the book so relatable to those who need it most. The book is drawn from Xena Knox’s own life experiences.

 I Am, You Are is a non-fiction picture and also drawn from its creators’ experiences. The author and illustrator are both disabled and activists. It is both comprehensive and matter of fact, written in plain language. They do a superb job, say the selectors, in reminding us that disabled kids do not have special needs – they have human needs. The style is colourful, joyful, funny and informal.  They explain that ablesism is all around us, in unkind words, inaccessible buildings and in unfair assumptions made by others. The book encourages children to feel empowered, embrace individuality, to look out for one another and to celebrate disability as diversity.

Someone Just Like You by Helen Docherty, illustratoed by David Roberts (Simon & Schuster, 2023) was selected in the Spanish edition, nominated by IBBY Chile and used as the catalogue cover.

Read the full list of UK nominations.

Explore the catalogue in full.