The retirement of my friend and colleague of over 30 years, Penny Dickinson, has brought back fond memories of one of my favourite projects that we worked on together, In The Picture.
In The Picture was an innovative, 3-year Big Lottery-funded project, created by the wonderful Susan Clow,. Aimed at the children’s book world, In The Picture wanted disabled children to find themselves represented in the books they read.
Since 2006, the impact from this project continues to be profound.
Invisible children
In 2006, there were 770,000 disabled children in the UK. But they had virtually no role models in literature.
Most children will look at their picture books hundreds of times. Those first images and stories are very important. Research shows that children as young as 3 form prejudices against people that some may perceive to be visibly different. Children are more likely to accept disability if they see images of disabled people at an early age.
The books we read as children have a profound effect on our attitudes, values and development. By identifying with the characters in these books, we are able to learn a great deal about ourselves and how we interact with others.
Social model of disability for kids
In The Picture introduced the social model of disability to younger readers through the delightful Valerie Thomas story of Winnie The Witch. Read more at Explaining disability to kids.
Celine’s New Splints
Celine was a young girl who walked using splints and a walking frame.
When she was 3, Celine was given a picture book. It was the first time she had seen a picture of a child using a walker, and she related to it immediately.
Celine can still remember how she felt when she realised she wasn’t the only one!
Inspired by Celine’s experiences and being unable to find enough books like that one, Susan began to develop the seeds of In The Picture.
This was the start of other books Scope produced, including:
My Brother is an Astronaut
Lucy is big sister to Jake who has sensory needs and sees the world rather differently. Lucy explains how her brother ‘lives’ on Planet Jake. The story was written by an occupational therapist to support children, families and professionals to help understand the impact of living with sensory needs.
My Brother is an Astronaut on Kindle
Haylee’s Friends
Haylee’s Friends was written and produced with a mum of a young girl with cerebral palsy and her occupational therapist to help other young children understand how different equipment can help to improve everyday activities. Meet Charlie Chair and Lily, the walking frame.
In The Picture legacy
In The Picture showed that that books featuring disabled characters could be popular. In fact, they were so popular that a post from a parents group in Facebook led to the website team thinking that the site was under attack! Orders for 60,000 books came in the space of a few days.
Sadly, the books, like Jacob’s Traffic Jam (about cerebral palsy) and Fun In The Sun (featuring a tube-fed child), are out of print now. If anyone wants to help get these books back into circulation, please get in touch!
The main aim of In The Picture was to include disability in popular children’s literature. Many authors and illustrators, like Quentin Blake, Ceri Burnell and Shani Dhanda, have responded enthusiatically to the challenge.
Jon Roberts approached us when he wrote a storybook about his daughter, Kya, who was diagnosed with autism. Through The Eyes of Me was the first of several books he has published with Graffeg.
It was lovely to see many of the illustrations represented in Scope’s 2024 calendar.
In her 2025 book, Benchmarking, Di Lorriman talks about her work creating illustrations of inclusive playgrounds and classroom. Her work is proudly displayed in Ashby’s Children’s Library to this day.
You can see the full list of books recommended by In The Picture on Pinterest.
Alex White writes 
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