Books like Dandelion
By Don Freeman
For the kid who loves getting dressed up but sometimes goes a little overboard, this one lands close to home. Warm, gently funny, and reassuring — a classic mid-century picture book feel.
Mama Cat teaches her three kittens to wash their paws, walk the stone wall, and sharpen their claws — but while Fluffy and Skinny copy every move, Boris just naps.
A soccer-loving, pirate-loving, unicorn-loving girl planning her eighth birthday can't find a party theme that matches who she is, so she invents her own mismatched Clash Bash instead.
Two identical-looking twin sisters share the same eyes, cheeks, and smiles, but as they make dumplings, get haircuts, and practice magic tricks, their differences keep showing through.
After spotting three dazzling mermaids on the subway, a boy transforms his home into a lagoon of imagination, fashioning his own mermaid costume from a curtain and some ferns.
A young girl in Ukraine refuses to eat borsch, no matter how hard the grandmothers of Kiev try to persuade her — but after immigrating to America, she finds herself missing the very soup she once despised.
A fish and his best friend, a tadpole, grow up together in a pond until the tadpole becomes a frog and hops off to explore dry land, leaving the fish desperate to follow.
A middle child inventor, unappreciated at home, runs away to build a meadow of one-of-a-kind houses for other overlooked kids — until the whole town comes looking for them.
An introduction to gender identity for young readers, explaining that some people are boys, some are girls, and some are both, neither, or somewhere in between.
A boy named Dennis expresses everything through mime — silent, expressive, entirely his own way — until loneliness gives way to friendship when he meets a girl named Joy.
When her mother asks why she likes being little, a young girl answers back with a list of the small, particular joys of childhood that grown-ups tend to overlook.
A young transgender girl shares what it's like to have a girl's brain in a boy's body, from loving pink and mermaid costumes to helping her family understand who she really is.
A girl and her house full of rescued, misfit creatures grow restless and decide to move on — but when every one of her careful plans falls apart, she has to find another way forward.
