When 8-year-old Kate meets a boy who seems somehow different, she feelsfunny inside. After talking with her mom, though, Kate begins to understand thatTimmy is just like her in many ways. Timmy has special needs; he takes longer tolearn 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 bewhen he grows up." Kate and Timmy meet, and the seeds of a friendship areplanted. For all those children who ask their parents why someone looks or acts"different," author and journalist Maria Shriver's What's Wrong withTimmy? provides a base for discussion. Kate's mother models appropriatebehavior, speaking to her daughter calmly and directly, and providing examplesfrom her own life to help Kate understand about Timmy. Illustrator SandraSpeidel's soft, intentionally hazy pastels are lovely; bold, enlarged phrases onthe opposite pages of text act as captions. Shriver and Speidel collaboratedpreviously on the tremendously popular What's Heaven?, also starringKate and her mother. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

Maria Shriver is one of television's most respected anchorwomen, the recipient of television awards, and the bestselling author of What's Heaven?, What's Wrong with Timmy?, and Ten Things I Wish I Known Before I Went Out Into the Real World. She and her husband Arnold Schwarzenegger have four children.

Sandra Speidel has won awards from the San Francisco and New York Society of Illustators, and most recently, from the Pastel Society of the West Coast. She illustrated What's Heaven?, What's Wrong with Timmy?, and a dozen other children's books.