WE'RE DIFFERENT AND IT'S TOTALLY COOL!

All differences are worth celebrating.

“There are so many ways to be different…and it’s totally cool!” an unseen narrator exuberantly proclaims in text rendered in groovy, retro bubble letters. Personified objects with expressive eyes mingle with humans who vary in skin tone, culture, and ability. A red apple peers across the page at a yellow apple wearing glasses (“Sometimes we are a little different”); a page turn reveals the same bespectacled fruit face to face with a large, playful Dalmatian (“And sometimes we are very different”). People and animals come in all shapes and sizes; on the following spread, the dog now appears relatively tiny, lovingly embraced by a larger, bearded, brown-skinned human. Everything and everyone is interwoven; an array of animal treats that shower down upon the pup and a black cat echo the tattoos on the owner’s arm. Yeh acknowledges that differences aren’t always visible: “We can like different things. We can feel different emotions. We all express ourselves in different ways.” The cluttered illustrations radiate energy and joy, encouraging readers to look closely at all the details. Evoking children’s book author Todd Parr’s direct prose, Yeh ends on one final reminder: “We are all beautiful, unique, and interesting because…we’re different and it’s totally cool!”

A bright meditation on inclusivity.