I Am Abel

About the Book

It is the first day of school and all Abel wants to do is make a friend and be a friend. Abel has just one challenge. He uses a wheelchair because he can’t walk. Unfortunately, this gets in the way of Abel making friends. The children at school see Abel as being different, and they assume he cannot do the things they can do. Then Abel meets the new boy, Pouvoir, and life at school is never the same.

About the Author

Author Sharon Balardo writes the children's book, I Am Abel, with the intention of shifting the focus to children's "abilities". As Sharon completed her teacher certification at D'Youville College in 2007/2008, she was required to write two children's books as course assignments. Writing from the heart, Sharon mentally wrote the bulk of I Am Abel one evening as she was driving home from D'Youville College, Buffalo, New York to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Sharon Balardo regards herself as parent first, teacher/author second. She leaves her reader with the idea to never judge a book by its cover and never underestimate the abilities of a child as witnessed in her children's book, I Am Abel.