Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me stage.
Why it fits Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me (for the kindergarten-ready set, between being read to and reading alone)
Twin sisters who look alike but insist they are not the same, in six mini-stories. Geisel-Honor easy-reader craft with genuine wit. Representation woven in naturally, never as the point of the story.
What makes it special
Lin builds the whole book on a truth twins know and all siblings feel: looking alike isn't being alike. Her bright, patterned art carries visual jokes the text politely declines to explain. Six mini-stories give new readers six finish lines — and representation arrives as texture, not lesson.
From the publisher
Ling and Ting are identical twins that people think are exactly the same, but time and again they prove to be…
About Grace Lin
Grace Lin studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design and has written and illustrated more than twenty books — board books, picture books, early readers and novels. She has a Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, a Caldecott Honor for A Big Mooncake for Little Star, and a Theodor Geisel Honor for Ling & Ting.
Lin grew up in upstate New York as the only Asian girl, besides her sisters, at her elementary school — an experience she says has influenced her books — and her TEDx talk, 'The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child's Bookshelf', is about what children do and don't see on their shelves.
Also by this author: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon · A Big Mooncake for Little Star · Dim Sum for Everyone!
More from “I Can Read This Myself”
This book is part of The Best Books for Beginning Readers: 30 Teacher Picks (Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.