Just Ask! Sonia Sotomayor’s New Children’s Book

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is encouraging children to “just ask” when it comes to disabilities. Sotomayor’s new children’s book “Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You” is out this week, and focuses on a group of friends planting a garden, each with a different disability. The garden’s plants and flowers serve as a metaphor for the children’s own differences.

Diagnosed with diabetes at a young age, Sotomayor knows first hand what it’s like to be made fun of by others because of being different. “Differences provide not just beauty in life, but they’re important to the quality of the world we live in. It’s richer because of our differences. We’re not lesser because of it. We’re stronger because of it. My book celebrates the many ways in which kids and adults are different and do things differently,” Sotomayor said in an interview ahead of the book’s release.

Appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009, Sotomayor said she was motivated to write the book from hearing her friends’ stories about their children with chronic conditions. She hopes that young readers will see themselves or someone they know in the book’s characters.

“Just Ask” is illustrated by Rafael López. It’s available on Amazon.