Amazon Review
When 8-year-old Kate meets a boy who seems somehow different, she feels funny inside. After talking with her mom, though, Kate begins to understand that Timmy is just like her in many ways. Timmy has special needs; he takes longer to learn than Kate, and can't walk or run as well. But he also "loves his family, he wants friends, he goes to school, and he dreams about what he wants to be when he grows up." Kate and Timmy meet, and the seeds of a friendship are planted.
For all those children who ask their parents why someone looks or acts "different," author and journalist Maria Shriver's What's Wrong with Timmy? provides a base for discussion. Kate's mother models appropriate behavior, speaking to her daughter calmly and directly, and providing examples from her own life to help Kate understand about Timmy. Illustrator Sandra Speidel's soft, intentionally hazy pastels are lovely; bold, enlarged phrases on the opposite pages of text act as captions. Shriver and Speidel collaborated previously on the tremendously popular What's Heaven?, also starring Kate and her mother. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter
Product Description
When little Kate goes to the park with her mother, she notices a boy named Timmy, whose look and behaviour is different from the other kids. The more Kate stares, the more uneasy she becomes. Whats wrong with him? she asks. Then her mother begins a conversation that helps Kate learn something about what its like to be disabled. And when Kate approaches Timmy, she finds out that they have more in common than she would have imagined. A friendship blooms, and Kate discovers for herself that while Timmy may be disabled, theres nothing wrong with him at all. Maria Shriver has worked at NBC News since 1986 and is the winner of an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for broadcast journalism. Her first two books were New York Times bestsellers. Ten Things I Wish Id KnownBefore I Went Out Into the Real World has sold over 600,000 copies, and Whats Heaven? has sold over 460,000 copies.
