Bernadette Goes to School
Featuring Bernadette Scarduzio
Introduce young readers to CMT through Bernadette’s school story, a starting point for conversations about disability, friendship, and belonging.
Classroom lesson plan available below.
The CMT Library
Stories connect us. They help us feel understood, introduce new perspectives, and give us a way to talk about experiences that can be difficult to explain.
Our CMT Library features books written by members of the Charcot-Marie-Tooth community, books about living with CMT, and stories that celebrate disability, inclusion, and belonging. Find your next read, support a community author, or share a book with your local school or library.
Children’s books
Help young readers explore CMT, celebrate differences, and discover what it means to include everyone.
What If We Were All the Same!
By Charity Harris, writing as C.M. Harris
A colorful, rhyming celebration of the differences that make each of us unique. This story encourages children to embrace diversity and appreciate one another.
Classroom lesson plan available below.
CMT & Me
By Brooke Shapiro
A children’s book about CMT that offers families and educators a way to start conversations about living with the condition.
Come Over to My House
By Eliza Hull and Sally Rippin, illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett
An inviting picture book exploring the homes of children and parents who are Deaf or disabled, showing the many ways families make their spaces accessible.
The World We Can Build
By Eliza Hull and Sally Rippin, illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett
When friends Carla and Sam struggle to find a place where they can both play, they imagine something better. A hopeful story about accessibility and creating spaces where everyone belongs.
Adult books
Explore personal perspectives and practical resources for navigating CMT, chronic illness, and self-care.
CMT Unbroken
By Daniel Blevins
An exploration of adaptation, strength, and personal growth while navigating life with CMT.
When Will the Suffering End?
By Suzanne Stucky
Drawing on lived experience with progressive illness and biblical study, Stucky reflects on suffering, faith, and finding hope through ongoing challenges.
Chronically Me
By Angellys Diaz
A poetry collection exploring chronic illness, disability, and the quiet struggles that often go unseen, offering words for experiences that can be difficult to express.
ABCs of CMT Pain Management
From the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation
A guide to understanding and managing CMT-related pain, exploring approaches ranging from movement and nutrition to treatments and emotional well-being.
CMT Self Care
From the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation
A 30-day journal with prompts and activities to support reflection, stress management, and self-compassion while living with CMT.
Bring CMT stories into your classroom
A story can open the door to a conversation that stays with a child long after the last page. CureCMT invites parents, educators, and community members to host a book reading at an elementary school. Reading together creates an opportunity to introduce CMT, explore different experiences of disability, and talk about everyday ways to make classmates feel welcome and included.
You don’t need to be an author or an expert. Start with a book, connect with a teacher, and make space for children’s curiosity.
Download a classroom lesson plan
Our two lesson plans can help you extend the conversation beyond the story.
Bernadette Goes to School
Pair your reading with the accompanying lesson plan to bring the story into your classroom.
Lesson plan coming soon What If We Were All the Same!
Continue exploring differences, acceptance, and belonging with the accompanying lesson plan.
Lesson plan coming soonHost your own reading
- Connect with a school. Reach out to an elementary school teacher or librarian to arrange a classroom reading.
- Choose your book. Select a children’s book from our library and download its lesson plan, if available.
- Read and connect. Welcome questions and invite children to share ideas for making their classroom more inclusive.
- Keep the story going. Consider donating a copy to the classroom or school library so students can enjoy it again.
Stories in action
See Bernadette and Charity sharing their books with students and bringing conversations about disability, differences, and belonging into the classroom.
Help us bring these conversations to more schools, one story at a time.