A Schneider Family Book Award Honor for You’re So Amazing! | Thanks America!
Lucy and James Catchpole
This is lovely news from the American Library Association. You’re So Amazing! might be a picture book, but it doesn’t have the simplest message – especially for adult readers. There’s no easy message of empowerment, despite the title.
At least one reviewer seemed frustrated that the book poses a problem Joe can’t entirely solve. But how could he? The problem is in other people’s heads – much older kids and adults – and how they feel about him. He’s a small child. What can he do or say? From our perspective, it’s not on disabled children to solve these problems, and we don’t want to signal otherwise.
So it’s all the more meaningful to receive an ALA honor for this book – to have librarians waving across the sea, signalling, ‘”we get it!” And talking of getting it – School Library Journal republished their original review in an article about the Schneider Award, and their reviewer REALLY got it. Joe can’t solve the world, but he can “surround himself with people who get it and don’t think of him as ‘The Joe Show’, at least until everyone else catches up”.
You’re So Amazing! is not a book about an amazing one-legged child – it’s about Joe, a perfectly normal disabled child. But people have feelings about disability, about disabled people. All sorts of feelings – from wonder and inspiration, to suspicion, pity, or worse. Between the two of us, we’ve probably seen them all.
But we’re adults, and arguably we can take it. Joe is young – he’s just starting to notice these feelings. I mean, it’s hard not to notice an adult shouting “That kid is INSPIRING!”.
This is the second picture book about Joe, and we wanted to catch him just at that stage – when he’s beginning to notice. It can be a mystifying time for children. Why does one friend get called “cute” but not another?
The way other people see and respond to us can’t help but partly form who we become. When you’re disabled? It can be a LOT. The feelings you provoke can be intense, and come with a whole story that has absolutely nothing to do with reality.
And that goes for all disabled children. Including the many who don’t get “amazing” thrown at them – because that’s not the story the world wants to tell about them. We want children to be in charge of their own stories, instead of having other people’s feelings and stereotypes imposed on them from the outside.
Joe’s body is normal, to him. Disability is normal – there are quite a lot of us about, after all.
Making books is a subjective business. I have no idea if we succeeded in communicating any of this in what is – after all – a children’s picture book. There’s validation in an award like this. The only regret is – we missed the call from the ALA! James was in the bath, saw a call from Illinois pop up and thought it was probably spam. Illustrator Karen George was no better – out dancing!
A big thank you to the ALA, and to Deirdre, Jessica and everyone at Little Brown. And also, thank you to all our North American supporters – some of you’ve been there since the very beginning, long before a US publisher was on the horizon. You really are the best.
~ Lucy & James
Ordering the book…
If you’d like to buy a copy of the US edition of You’re So Amazing! through our US Bookshop link, that’d be lovely. Or if you’re elsewhere, the UK edition is available through our Blackwell’s link – they deliver internationally, postage included. We get a small extra percentage from these orders, but it’s also available wherever you usually buy or borrow books!
Who are we?
We’re Lucy and James Catchpole. We’re married with two daughters, and we’re both disabled – Lucy’s a wheelchair user, and James has one leg. We live in Oxford in the UK and run a children’s literary agency. Sometimes, we write.
Find us most reliably on Instagram, and more about all our books here.
More reading
- School Library Journal’s piece about all the Schneider Award books – including the starred You’re So Amazing review.
- And the Kirkus review – which was a little less enthusiastic.
- Find more about all our books here.
- Our free lesson plans for You’re So Amazing.
- Children’s books by disabled authors – our big list.
[Image description:
- A photo of our family, celebrating “You’re So Amazing!” receiving a Schneider Family Book Award Honor from the ALA. We’re in our garden, trees and greenery behind. James and Lucy – a white disabled couple – and their two young daughters wear clothes that vaguely suggest a pirate theme, with hats and bandanas. We’re all sitting, with Lucy in her wheelchair holding a book our picture book “You’re SO Amazing!”. Viola – age 6 – has an open-mouthed expression of great joy / surprise – who can tell? – Book cover: “You’re So Amazing” – the US hardback, a children’s picture book with a cream background. On the illustrated cover are three children between 4 and 6yo – an East Asian boy, a white one-legged boy with yellow crutches, and a Black girl. They have a football and look happy. The title “You’re SO Amazing!” is in large, bold, colourful, and stylised letters in yellow, orange, blue, and light green. The tagline is “Being singled out doesn’t always feel amazing”. At the bottom of the cover, the credit line “By James & Lucy Catchpole • Illustrated by Karen George” in a smaller typeface.
- Viola and Mainie holding the American edition of our picture book “You’re So Amazing!” together. Both girls are wearing pale mustard corduroy trousers and cotton muslin tops in natural-beige, and vaguely piratical bandanas on their heads – Viola a patterned headscarf, Mainie a light brown muslin bandana. Mainie’s holding and looking down at “You’re So Amazing!”. Viola’s leaning into Mainie with her arm around her.
- A screenshot from School Library Journal reads: “Schneider Award Honors 9 Books for Their Portrayal of the Disability Experience | ALA Youth Media Awards 2025”. Jpg covers of “You’re So Amazing”, “A Little Like Magic” by Sarah Kurpiel, and “Monster Hands” by Karen Kane & Jonaz McMillan. illus. by Dion MBD.
- A screenshot of SLJ’s starred “You’re So Amazing!” review reads: “Joe, the modest but imaginative child from What Happened to You?, a story of the irrelevance of his having “only” one leg, returns. Still blond, still in a striped shirt, Joe hates the titular phrase. He knows he is not amazing, he is just like everyone else, and he certainly wishes all of the other children and adults would understand that Joe is not defined by his limbs or lack of them. When he hears anyone say how “amazing” he is, it stops the game. It stops him from playing. He and Simone, who understands, try different games, including one where Joe decides to be invisible so Simone’s powerful jumps can be admired on their own. But no one notices her. They think about “poor Joe,” who can’t run and jump. Condescension and patronizing remarks run rampant in this picture book, which will have adults cringing in recognition. A note from the Catchpoles includes a photo of a baby, a small girl, an adult man with one leg, and a woman using a wheelchair. To children, this will read simply as “family.” Joe’s own actions are to surround himself with people who get it and don’t think of him as “The Joe Show,” at least until everyone else catches up. This book, with its Bob Graham–style cheerful cartoons and utterly common-sense approach, should be in every library. It pulls no punches and lets everyone play on a level field. VERDICT This book, about perfectly normal children having a great time, is absolutely amazing.-Reviewed by Kimberly Olson Fakih”.
- James and his daughters with “You’re SO Amazing!” – the UK and US editions.
- A stack of the US hardbacks in our garden.
- Another family portrait with the same setup as image 1, but now Lucy and James are smiling at the camera.
- An outtake – the family portrait has disintegrated a bit by now – Mainie is giving Viola a piggyback whilst brandishing a toy sword, and we’re laughing. Viola looks fierce.
- Photo is the same as image 7, but with a cream border. Text reads: “Our book about not being amazing is a Schneider Family Book Award Honor book!”]
The Catchpoles 