Books like Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
By Grace Lin
For the kid who's tired of being lumped in with a sibling or best friend, this book insists that looking alike is not the same as being alike. Warm, funny, and gently observant, with short linked stories that feel like sitting at a kitchen table.
A Pakistani-American girl is chosen as flower girl for her Auntie Laila's wedding, where her Auntie Amina paints intricate henna designs on her hands — but Nadia worries what her classmates will think on Monday.
A mother cat leads her two kittens, Fluffy and Skinny, through washing, wall-walking, and claw-sharpening — while a third kitten, Boris, just naps through it all.
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.
An older man decides he's too old for birthday fuss and plans a quiet cup of tea instead, until his best friends and their dog have a surprise in store for him.
A picnic goes sideways when rain and stormy winds send an umbrella (and Mouse!) flying into a tree — one friend calls it good news, the other bad, all the way through.
A gallery of animal families — ducks, pandas, hippos, tigers, and more — appears in framed portraits, each one showing a different way to be a family, from two moms to a kid with just a pet plant.
On the Isle of Struay, a girl's two grandmothers couldn't be more different — one plain and island-tough, one glamorous and mainland-chic — until a prize sheep and a secret beauty formula bring them together.
A young tiger can't read, write, draw, or speak, and his worried father watches for progress while his mother insists he just needs time to bloom in his own way.
A young polar bear's fishing trip with Grampa Bear is interrupted by pesky otters, sparking a gentle conversation about why we're called to love others — even when they're hard to love.
When a crocodile egg rolls into her nest, Mother Duck simply hatches it with the rest and raises the little crocodile as one of her own ducklings.
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 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.
