New children’s books about kids with autism, visual impairment and other disabilities are being recognized alongside top honors like the Newbery and Caldecott Medals.

Three winners and five honorees of the Schneider Family Book Awards were announced by the American Library Association this week.

The awards go to works that “portray the emotional, mental or physical disability as part of a full life, not as something to be pitied.” They are given annually to authors and illustrators for books targeting young children, middle grades and teens.

In the young children’s category, the winning book is “My City Speaks,” which gives the perspective of a young girl with visual impairment as she and her father take in their city. The honor books are “A Walk in the Words,” about a boy who struggles with reading, and “A Sky-Blue Bench,” about a girl with a prosthetic leg.

The winner for middle grades is “A Bird Will Soar,” which uses poetry and science to tell the story of a boy with autism who loves birds and learns to help his family, an injured bird and himself. Honor books for this age group are “Stuntboy, in the Meantime” about a boy dealing with anxiety and “A Kind of Spark” about a girl with autism who wants a memorial for the witch trials that happened in her town.

The teen award is going to “The Words in my Hands,” which centers on an adolescent who is deaf and is searching for her identity through art and activism. The honor book in that category is “A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome,” a memoir about life with a rare condition that causes facial disfigurement.

The winners of the Schneider Family Book Awards each receive $5,000 and a framed plaque.

Separately, the Dolly Gray Award, which goes to books for children or young adults that authentically portray autism and developmental disabilities, was also handed out this week by the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities.

The winner of that award is “Planet Earth is Blue” about a girl who is nonverbal. “Dancing with Daddy,” which focuses on a girl with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, is the picture book winner.

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