When Charley Met Emma (Charley and Emma Stories, 1)

I wasn’t sure how to talk about this topic with my 5 year old and knew it was important. this book is so simple yet important! My 2 kids loved it and it sparked a great conversation. Definitely recommend to all

We received our copy of 'When Charley met Emma' today. Our daughter, who is 7, couldn't wait, and began to look through it and told me what was happening, by way of the illustrations and some of the words she could read. I could instantly tell that she immediately connected in a powerful way. The girl, Emma, in the story has limb differences that are VERY similar to hers. Our daughter has born with both arm differences like Emma in the book and a short right leg ( that has since been amputated and she wears a prosthetic leg). She is left footed, using it for everything as her dominant limb. Emma even uses her left foot to write! She can relate to EVERYTHING Emma goes through in this book. This story is about how we are ALL different, and how that is OK. It helps kids dialouge about approaching differences in a way that they can understand and shows ways that we, as humans, are more alike than different. At the core, it's about kindness and humanity. I HIGHLY encourage ALL parents to add it to their library. Go...now...do it. If you are an educator, teacher, administrator, etc..., get a few copies for your schools and districts.

When Charley Met Emma is such a sweet, lovely book - it tells the story of a little boy named Charley who makes a new friend, Emma, at the playground. But at first, Charley doesn't know how to act or what to say to Emma - because she has limb differences and uses a wheel chair. This book does a wonderful job, in a very gentle and encouraging way, of teaching children (and parents!) how to handle initial interactions with people who, at first, seem very different. My two not-physically-disabled kids (ages 5 and 6.5) LOVED this book and have asked to read it again every day since we got it -- they talk about what makes us each different but special and amazing! I can already tell the lessons and impressions from the story have had a huge effect on them and will go a long way towards informing their attitudes and behaviors with others they meet going forward who might not be exactly like them. Amy Webb has given our world a gift with this book -- sharing kindness, understanding and opening ourselves up to all the wonderful things about EVERY person.

I feel like this page was completely unnecessary. I understand kids might feel uncertain and they absolutely will be curious- however I feel like this really took away from what we were trying to focus on. This book had so much potential.. the illustrations are beautiful and I really wanted to love it. I just felt like it wasn’t executed as well as it could’ve been and there were a couple of phrases I felt could use some tweaking. It also continued to say just how different she was.. they tried to tie it in by saying how she was the same too.. but overall I felt like they just focused on her being different and I didn’t love that. The boy at one point even wondered if she was “too different” to be his friend. To each their own, but this was not for us.

I love this book—the message, the story , and the illustrations are all gold! Just last week I was standing In line next to a woman in a power wheelchair with my 3- and 5-year-old. They said “hi” to her when she came up and talked to her about how much they like her wheelchair, the buttons, etc. This seems like such a simple thing, but I know that as a kid I never would have done that—and a lot of people (kids and adults) still don’t speak to people with visible disabilities like they are just normal people. I didn’t do anything special—I just read them this book and reinforce the idea that we treat everyone the same (including people of different races as well) every chance I get. To me it demonstrates how just talking about people who are different affects how our children treat them. How Charley met Emma is an easy way to start that conversation!

I purchased this book after reading an article the author wrote on Cupofjo.com about how to discuss disabilities with your children. You can't read this book in a silo and have no further conversation about disabilities, but it was an excellent way to start a conversation about inclusion, kindness, and the appropriate way to approach children with visual differences with my 4 and 6 year old daughters. Otherwise, I think I would have possibly relied on a real life situation to prompt the conversation. I would rather have my daughters be PREPARED for this encounter ahead of time and handle it in a respectful way than have to process it in real time, possibly while they inadvertently hurt someone.I love the repetition of the author's message that "everyone's different, and it's okay." We have already used the author's wording at a playground as a way to connect the book with the real-life situation.I sent it into my daughter's school for her teacher to preview and share with the class. Kids can't hear enough about the importance of being compassionate, kind, and inclusive.

Love reading this with my 5 year old. She really shows interest in how Emma is different and how Charlie learns to ask questions and learn. It’s a great tool to point out emotions and how the words we use are important and powerful and how to approach something that is different than what we know.

This book is incredible! My boys are grown now but boy did I wish it was written when they were young! I love the message it sends and believe all kids should read it. I work at an elementary school and we ended up ordering 3 copies of this special book! I live that it teaches kids that everybody is different—whether it be different on the outside or the inside—and that is ok! And look how much we are alike, even if we look different on the outside! So special! We have a student at our school who has limb differences and she sure has some skills that amaze me! I hope all parents see the benefit of teaching their children that people who are different aren’t weird, they are just different, and that’s ok! This book is a necessary parenting tool and will benefit ALL kids (and some adults I know as well)!

I'm a brazilian teacher and I was planning to read this amazing story to my 1st grade students, but unfortunately it arrived damaged.

I LOVE the Emma and Charley books. They capture aspects of diversity and inclusivity in many different ways. This is a great book to show your child that disabilities don’t have to hold them back as well as educating other children on respecting others’ differences.

Love the story, love the message, love that my son gets to see a child in a power chair in one of his books. Applicable to ALL children

Love it for my children to learn about differences.

Both me and my daughter have loved the book. Even more so because i follow the author on Instagram and could show my daughter the heroine of the book. Learning what to say in situations like these, and guiding your child down the path of empathy and understanding is such a valuable tool.Highly recommended