I highly recommend all the following books. Besides listing books on linguistics and learning disabilities, I have also included a section of “inspirational” books. These last are books that I turn to whenever I feel fed up with my teaching or my students . . . or both.
Linguistics
Baratz, Joan C., and Roger W. Shuy.
Teaching Black Children to Read
. Washington, D. C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1969.
Dillard, J.L.
Black English: Its History and Usage in the United States
. New York: Random House, 1972.
Labov, William.
Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular
. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.
Learning Disabilities
Birch, Herbert G., M.D., PhD., and Joan Dye Gussow.
Disadvantaged Children: Health, Nutrition and School Failure
. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970.
Korner, Jerome.
Helping Children Overcome Learning Difficulties
. New York: Walker and Company, 1975.
Velten, Emnett C., and Carlene T. Sampson.
Rx for Learning Disability
. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1978.
Inspiration
Cuban, Larry.
To Make a Difference: Teaching in the Inner City
. New York: The Free Press, 1970.
Kohl, Herbert R.
On Teaching
. New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1976.
Kohl, Herbert R.
36 Children
. New York: Signet Classics, 1967.
Rothman, Esther P.
The Angel Inside Went Sour
. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1970.