The Mermazing Adventures of Penelope Pond

Alice Barker is a disabled author whose work challenges how disability is portrayed in fiction. Writing across children's and new-adult genres, she creates protagonists who live full, complex lives with their disabilities rather than being defined by struggle or "overcoming" narratives. Her books include The Mermazing Adventures of Penelope Pond, an underwater adventure featuring a wheelchair-using heroine, Paraplegion, a dystopian fiction in which a disabled soldier discovers the chilling truth behind her body armour, and Sketching Scarlett, a romance told from the perspective of a man falling in love with a woman who uses a wheelchair. Through her writing, Alice aims to ensure disabled readers see themselves as the heroes of their own stories, and able-bodied readers recognise them that way too.