Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You

This beautiful book compares kids and people to flowers, trees, and plants, all uniquely different with various needs. It includes many amazing ways that kids could embrace their disabilities and work alongside other kids to help them understand one another.

Grade: Primary & Intermediate (2nd-3rd)

I believe that overall, this book is very beautifully illustrated and detailed, with specific ways that a child may notice a disability. There are various things like Allergies, Asthma, Dyslexia, ADHD, Diabetes, and many more included in this book that would be amazing to help children understand others or embrace the needs they have themselves.

This book win the Schneider Family Book Award for its artistic expression of the disability experience.

What a wonderful book about differences in children--from those who are blind and deaf, to those with ADD and Tourettes, to those who have Downs Syndrome or Diabetes. It is a wonderful conversation starter for children. It brings "tough topics" into light and actually a light that is approachable and accessible.

Definitely a fan!!

A book that reflects how unique we all are; similar to plants and flowers. Sonia Soto Mayor does a great job at explaining her own condition as a child, and how unique that makes her. There are other conditions mentioned in this book, like allergies, dyslexia, deafness, etc. I think this is a perfect book to celebrate how unique we are, and that being curious about something we are unfamiliar with it's totally fine.

Encourages kids to ask other kids about their differences in a curious, nonjudgmental way. Twelve kids plant a garden and explain their own differences (diabetes, asthma, blindness, deafness, etc.) as they do so.

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Re-read February 2021
The garden metaphor (variety/difference = beauty) works well here. There is just enough information about the way each child is different to introduce readers who may be unfamiliar with Down syndrome, autism, etc., so that if/when they meet people in real life, they will have some context. Window/mirror book.

Goodreads Review:
Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful.

In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges—and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same: When we come across show more someone who is different from us but we're not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask. show less

Picture book about a variety of kids with a variety of disabilities. Ranging from autism, to a peanut allergy, the kids share what makes them different in a positive light!

I loved this book! This book does such a great job at showcasing so many different disabilities, and some that people might not even think about. The illustrations were beautiful and very well detailed. It was so cool to even see some of the disabilities that I have in this book! I would definitely have this book in my classroom, 100%! I would use this book for 1-2 graders.

In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges--and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same: When we come across someone who is different from us but we're not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask.