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 is a Newbery Honor winner (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon) and Caldecott Honor artist whose books braid Asian-American family life into every reading level; her TED talk on 'windows and mirrors' reshaped how classrooms build libraries.
Lin planned to illustrate fairy tales until she noticed no one in them looked like her; she rebuilt her career around the books she'd needed as a child, and Ling & Ting brought that mission to easy readers.
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.