A review by mehsi
I Am Not a Label: 34 Disabled Artists, Thinkers, Athletes and Activists from Past and Present by Cerrie Burnell

4.0

A gorgeous book about 34 disabled people who went above and beyond everything, in writing, in drawing, in creating things, inventions, and more!


I came across this book in one of my libraries and just had to bring it along with me because it looked SO good. I was curious about the various people mentioned, would I recognise them or not?

And I can say that for most I did recognise them! A lot of these people got famous everywhere and so you see them everywhere. Or they are people who have been around longer and did all sorts of important things. Like Frida Kaho, one of my favourite artists. Or Stephen Hawking, fantastic scientist and more. Or Lady Gaga. I didn’t expect her in this book, and it is apparently the same thing that haunts my mom, fibromyalgia! It was very interesting to read everyone’s stories and all they did in life. I learned new facts about some of the peeps I knew and I learned about new people. Like apparently my country (which is The Netherlands and not Holland as that is just two provinces (South-Holland and North-Holland)), there is a dancer named REDO. Somewhere that name sounds familiar, but not sure if it is because it is a common word in English or if I do know it as a name. But I really found it interesting to see my country pop by. And I loved that there was one woman in this book who went against the whole OMG so strong and inspirational thing that people have. I know that doesn’t make all the sense, but just read her story.

I loved that we also had themed pages which highlighted several people in a category.

And it is great that there was a glossary at the end!

But, I would have loved to see maybe another person with autism. Now you got two people with autism who couldn’t speak/had issues with talking. And autism is more than that. I already have to explain to people as an autist that no, autism isn’t rain man. No autism doesn’t mean I am emotionless robot or don’t get feelings. No autism doesn’t mean, insert something else. So it would have been fun/better if they had shown one or two other sides to autism. As autism is a very broad thing and we need to show people that.

But all in all, I really did enjoy this book, it is gorgeously illustrated with a wonderful portrait of the person on one side and their story on the other side. As I said, I learned about new people and their things. I would recommend this one.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/