Accidents of Nature

Written by Harriet McBryde Johnson

Narrated by Jenna Lamia

Seventeen-year-old Jean has cerebral palsy and gets around in a wheelchair, but she’s always believed she’s just the same as everyone else. She goes to normal school and has normal friends. She’s never really known another disabled person before she arrives at Camp Courage. But there Jean meets Sara, who welcomes her to “Crip Camp” and nicknames her Spazzo. Sara has radical theories about how people fit into society. She’s full of rage and revolution against pitying insults and the lack of respect for people with disabilities.
As Jean joins a community unlike any she has ever imagined, she comes to question her old beliefs and look at the world in a new light. The camp session is only ten days long, but that may be all it takes to change a life forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: May 23, 2006
• ISBN: 9780739335314

Harriet McBryde Johnson

Harriet McBryde Johnson has been a lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina, since 1985. Her solo practice emphasizes benefits and civil rights claims for poor and working people with disabilities. She is the author of Accidents of Nature and Too Late to Die Young.

Reviews for Accidents of Nature

[satyridae · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Nuanced and engaging portrait of that moment in time before people got that telethons suck. Also before people got that "mixing the races" was no big deal. The narrator's syrupy southern accent was a bit distracting, as were the Mary Sue tendencies of Sara, but overall I enjoyed the story of Jean's awakening. I dug the insight into the struggles of Jean, who has CP, to communicate, and how it felt when her body didn't go along with the wishes of her mind.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent characterizations, engaging story.

[julie10reads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having always prided herself on blending in with “normal” people despite her cerebral palsy, seventeen-year-old Jean begins to question her role in the world while attending a summer camp for children with disabilities.

Thought-provoking story that challenges the reader’s prejudices and assumptions about people with disabilities. Written by real-life advocate, Harriet McBryde Johnson, who herself attended cross-disability summer camps as a teenager.

A funny, angry, iconoclastic camp story not just for young adults. The only caveat I have is that the publishers have not made it clear that the time is the 1970s. References to MRs (mentally retarded people) and a tendency to condescend towards the African American campers will seem egregious to the modern-day reader if not forewarned.

The title comes from Eleanor Roosevelt:

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art”
7.5 Hopefully this book will pique your curiosity about the author who was also a, lawyer, public speaker, disability rights activist, famous for (among other things) boycotting the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethons.

[tigerlms · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

17 year old Jean, who has Cerebral Palsy, goes to 'crip camp' (Camp Courage) for the first time and meets other disabled youth for the first time. Over the course of the ten day camp she meets new friends, questions long-held beliefs, and sees her life in a whole new way-- though not in an uplifting, Jerry Lewis Telethon sort of way. This is a great book for high school students who have not had a lot of exposure to people their own age who are disabled. Author Harriet McBryde Johnson offers us a view "normal" people rarely get to see-- that of the person sitting in the wheelchair who is often pitied.

[vaillance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book would make an outstanding read-aloud for a high school English or health class. Although the experience of a physical disability may be difficult for many able-bodied people to relate to, the inner experiences and discoveries of the book's main character, Jean, are likely be compelling and profoundly inspirational for any reader.

[kayceel_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this – Sara, the agitator who helps Jean start questioning is unabashed in her disgust with the way she and the other campers are treated – like theirs is a burden always, and they can never have ‘good’ lives. She may be a bit much, but I really felt like my own eyes were opened while reading this, though the only historical aspects are the mentions of telethons and the fact that they cannot expect to go to college – physical disability is equal to mental disability to the ‘normals’ in this book.

[mrshillreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There was a lot to think about in this book. I don't think it was as powerful as "Stuck in Neutral", but it still was interesting and makes you examine how you view people who have disabilities.

[catnelson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having always prided herself on blending in with "normal" people despite her cerebral palsy, seventeen-year-old Jean begins to question her role in the world while attending a summer camp for children with disabilities.