This Is How We Play: A Celebration of Disability & Adaptation

“We sing, learn, sign! We stim, dance, crawl!/ Grown-ups, siblings, cousins, all having a ball.” Intersectionally diverse characters are shown interacting throughout this buoyant picture book that spotlights how, “with love and adaptation... we play!” Slice and Cupp utilize rhyming couplets on each spread to show play in inter-abled relationships: on one page, a child using leg braces frolics with another wearing an eye patch; elsewhere, a child playing in nature decorates an adult’s cane. A spread noting that “some days bodies are not much fun./ They hurt and ache—can’t jump or run” attends an image of a duo snuggled up and reading in a chair. Harren’s realistic digital art shows characters of various body types and skin tones using apparatuses for breathing and communication as well as mobility aids, PPE, and more, expanding the text into an inclusively populated world in which play is accessible for all. Learning guides for kids and adults conclude. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)