From Pity to Agency: Rewriting Disability Narratives in Roll With It and The Chance to Fly

Abstract

Children’s and juvenile literature has long functioned as a formative cultural space in which ideas about difference, normalcy, and belonging are introduced to young readers. Historically, however, disability within this literary tradition has been framed through sentimental, tragic, or moralistic lenses, often positioning disabled characters as objects of pity or narrative instruments meant to inspire able-bodied readers. Such portrayals reinforce ableist assumptions by reducing disability to lack, dependency, or exceptional struggle. In contrast, contemporary juvenile fiction increasingly challenges these reductive frameworks by centering disabled protagonists as active agents within their own narratives. This paper examines how Jamie Sumner’s Roll With It (2019) and Ali Stroker and Stacy Davidowitz’s The Chance to Fly (2021) participate in this representational shift. Drawing on disability studies theory, particularly the work of Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Lennard J. Davis, and Rachel Adams, the study analyses how both texts rewrite disability narratives by foregrounding voice, autonomy, and lived experience. Through close textual analysis and comparative reading, the paper argues that these novels move decisively from pity-based representation toward agency-driven storytelling, offering young readers more ethical, inclusive, and empowering models of disability and childhood.