Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You

This book is about different abilities and being inclusive, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor herself, partially based on her own lived experience of being diagnosed with diabetes as a child.

I love the thread of respect that infuses the book – a gentle push that we can stay curious and ask about things that we don’t quite understand when others seem different from us. As a bonus for the nerd in me, there is a baked-in deliberate practice component because many pages incorporate questions that each reader can answer for themselves.

I love this picture book that plants compassion, comfort, and connection for kids with all kinds of disabilities. Starting with author (and Supreme Court Justice!) Sonia Sotomayor’s own story of living with diabetes, then award-winning illustrator Rafael López’s story of living with asthma, it introduces readers in first person to an array of diverse kids with various visible and invisible disabilities. Using questions to help make each child relatable and allowing many children to see themselves in a book for the first time, this book opens hearts and minds.