This is what inclusive children's literature should look like: direct without being preachy, warm without being saccharine, educational without being boring.

Sotomayor uses her own experience with diabetes to ground the book in authenticity, and the result is a picture book that treats disability and difference as normal parts of the human experience rather than something to whisper about. The community garden setting gives kids a concrete, collaborative activity to rally around, and Lopez's illustrations are genuinely beautiful—colorful, dynamic, and focused on what each kid can do.

The book won't single-handedly end ableism or bullying (as one honest reviewer notes), but it gives young kids language and permission to be curious instead of awkward. It's the kind of book that belongs in every classroom and pediatrician's waiting room.

The only knock: it's more of a teaching tool than a rollicking story, so some kids might not reach for it on their own. But as a read-aloud with discussion? Absolutely worth it.