What Happened to You?
by James Catchpole; illus. by Karen George
Preschool, Primary    Little, Brown    40 pp.
4/23    9780316506472    $18.99

Joe is having a ball playing pirate at the playground until some kids he hasn’t met before arrive. One of them shouts, “You’ve only got one leg!” Joe agrees, unimpressed: “And you’ve just squashed my shark.” Too few picture books recognize and validate the full, happy lives of children who have disabilities; this one does both with sensitivity, goodwill, and humor. The colored-pencil and gouache illustrations in a summery palette focus on the children, particularly their faces as they move from caution to puzzlement to connection. Joe deflects invasive questions, sometimes directly (“What do you think?”), and sometimes with humor (“Stop staring at my bottom”). A wordless double-page spread at the denouement allows Joe a moment of quiet sadness and frustration, and the other children finally realize Joe’s leg (or lack thereof) isn’t the most interesting thing about him. They go from being Kid One, Kid Two, and Kid Three to Simone, Yuto, and Caspar, and they join Joe’s pirate game. An endnote for adults gives suggestions for how to talk with children about disabilities.

From the September/October 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.