Our Mission

Welcome to Wheellustrated Tales, which was founded by Rebecca Rubin Seligson in 2021. Rebecca holds degrees in both Early Childhood Education (B.A. Yeshiva University) and Literacy (M.A. Teachers College, Columbia University) and has experience teaching English as a Second Language. 

 

After her eldest son was born with severe cerebral palsy, Rebecca took time off from teaching in order to care for him. During this time, many, many people suggested she should turn to writing. While most people probably intended for that writing to be a first person account of raising a child with a disability, she decided to go in a different direction: writing children's books.

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While raising her son (and a few years later, her daughter), Rebecca noticed a severe lack of disabled representation in children's literature. Knowing how important it is for children to relate to characters in the books they read, Rebecca decided to write a children's book featuring a child in a wheelchair.

 

Rebecca took some time to research what specifically to write about, and to learn more and more about what was out there and what was lacking. There were many books out there that educated readers about disabilities and the importance of accepting others who are different than themselves. However, there were not many books that included a child in a wheelchair who just was - no explanation, no discussions of disabilities, just a kid being a kid who happened to use a wheelchair. 

Wheelustrated Tales was born in an effort to normalize disabilities in children's literature and to help fill that void.

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Rebecca has turned Wheellustrated Tales into a way to publish children's books, as well as advocating for disability inclusion through children's literature. As a firm believer that exposure to disabilities at a young age (through modalities such as books), Rebecca's goal is to bring these kinds of books into the hands of young readers in an effort to promote disability awareness and inclusion. The more children are exposed to people and kids with disabilities, when they meet someone in real life who has a disability, they will be more willing to include them, as an in-person meeting will not be their first exposure (and therefore more likely to see them as an "other").  

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Thank you so much for joining us in our efforts to create more diverse children's libraries and by extension, a more inclusive generation of readers. 

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