This book is a good read-aloud to help encourage young kids to ask questions when they see differences in the people around them, which hopefully would take the place of whispers, gossip, teasing, or fear.
Each two-page spread of illustrations and text discusses a different medical condition or developmental disability. It is noteworthy that the book never uses the word "disability", and the dust jacket uses the phrase "differently abled". I suspect these word choices are somewhat controversial, since even in 2019, when this book was published, there already existed guidelines regarding language surrounding disabilities (copyright 2018 at the time of this writing) that advised against "differently abled".
Still, I applaud the book's existence. It's hard enough to talk about disabilities and identities among adults, so I appreciate that this book broaches the subject with kids, tries to normalize differences, and can serve as a springboard for further discussions.
The conditions covered are: diabetes, asthma, use of wheelchair, blindness, deafness, dyslexia, autism, stuttering, Tourette's syndrome, ADHD, food allergies, and Down syndrome.
As a parent of children with food allergies, I wish the food allergy page mentioned EpiPens as a just-in-case tool for people with life-threatening food allergies, since some kids may feel self-conscious about self-carrying their epinephrine autoinjectors.
Also, the autism page says "I have autism" and "Tiana also has autism", even though, again, in 2019 (when this book was published) the debate regarding preferred language (link to article published in 2015), e.g., "person with/has autism" vs. "autistic person", was already well under way. I think there are no easy answers, but maybe the book could have at least exposed readers to both options by using "I'm autistic" in one sentence and "Tiana also has autism" in the other.
Overall, not perfect, but serves a purpose.
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