As Leduc takes us through these fairy tales and the space they occupy in the narratives that we construct, she slowly unfolds a call-to-action: the claiming of space for disability in storytelling. To challenge ourselves to tell stories in which the “princess or the childless parent or the half-human boy says, ‘Why should I be like everyone else?’ ”

Leduc (The Miracles of Ordinary Men), a Canadian writer with cerebral palsy, has penned a remarkable exploration into the ways disability has been portrayed in fairy tales and, consequently, how those portrayals have shaped society’s treatment of the disabled. Referencing her own experiences, as well as those of other disabled writers and activists, Leduc shows how disabled children search for positive representation in fairy tales and other media, only to encounter depictions of disability as something to be pitied, feared, or corrected. In popular tales such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Snow White,” disability is either removed by magic or remains as a punishment for the wicked.