This book provides an excellent platform for having a challenging conversation with young children, mostly regarding visible differences you might see in people (such as an amputated limb, tattoos, birthmarks, hearing aids, etc.). The author's text emphasizes showing kindness and respect to people who appear different and I found it easy to edit with my own choices of explanations anywhere I saw fit (which I do with many books; I don't mean that as a critique - this is well written). I ordered this about a month ago and have been meaning to read it with my children (ages 6 & 3). We just had a nice chat through it in anticipation of a social gathering where one of the other guests is blind (which is not covered in the book but there are several other-abilities which lent themselves towards that discussion).



All of the illustrations and topics were useful and/or easily edited by an adult. For example, we live in a rural area and are not likely to ever meet a drag queen so I did not read that page aloud (I do consider myself infomed now as to the Shakespearian roots!) but we remarked on the fancy costume and I said while we probably wouldn't see anyone on the street dressed in an outfit like that, if we did, we could compliment them on their sparkly costume.



I would love a sequel - this is beautifully illustrated and a broader segue into the notion of celebrating our differences (such as a group of people with various skin tones, a group of people with various hairstyles, cultural dress, physical abilities, etc) would be so fantastic for the youngest ones. Kudos to the author/illustrator for creating this book; we even enjoyed getting to "meet" her through her paragraph at the end.