What a great book for introducing children to their special needs peers. I read it with a 3-year-old and will read it with him again when he's in the K-4 years that can better understand all the valuable information about kids who use wheel chairs and different desks and such. The tie-in with the iguana in the story is clever and effective. ( )

A boy named Moses is told that he is supposed to write a paper about his best friend. HE starts thinking of all of his great friends in class. He decides to write about one of his friends pet iguanas. he writes about all of their triumphs.

Moses, a wheelchair bond seven-year-old with spina bifida, has a school assignment where he compares his neighbor's disabled iguana resembles him because they both have figured out how to get around differently than his friends.

Moses and his classmates are given the task of writing about a friend. Moses considers classmates, neighbors, parents, even teachers, before deciding to write about Zaki, his neighbor's iguana. Zaki has missing toes and has been forced to find ways to compensate. Moses has also been forced to compensate, because of his disabilities due to spina bifida. Despite his disability, Moses participates in all of the class activities. The pages themselves were filled with a collage of images and colors, which I thought was a bit distracting. It may be difficult for a younger child, especially one who is just learning to read, find where sentences begin and end. Otherwise, I thought this was a wonderful book, one that should be included in all public and school libraries. ( )

Here we accompany Moses on a school day. When he is given an assignment to write about friends, he carefully considers all of his friends and all the fun things he does with them. Ultimately, he decides to write about an iguana named Zaki whose toes were poisoned by mites. Moses likes Zaki because ‘she figures out how to get where she wants to be in different ways.’ Moses understands that friends may different on the outside but may be very much alike on the inside.