SuitabookJust Ask!
Sonia Sotomayor
- Reading
- Read the spreads slowly, allowing time for each child’s introduction and question. Afterwards, check any unfamiliar condition together and ask how the garden metaphor helps—or fails—to explain people’s differences.
- Themes
- Difference and disability: Children introduce conditions and abilities while taking part in a shared garden project. Difference is presented as valuable rather than as a failure to meet an ideal of perfection.
- Curiosity and respectful questions: The book addresses readers directly and invites questions about experiences that may be unfamiliar. Curiosity is framed as a route to understanding, alongside attention to the person’s own perspective.
- Shared contribution: Sonia and her friends plant a garden, with each child contributing in a distinctive way. The shared project presents participation as strengthened by varied abilities, interests and supports.
- Worth knowing
- Some children may want more explanation when the book names medical, learning, developmental or genetic conditions. If a child identifies with one, pause to distinguish this book’s broad introductions from their own lived experience.