A “strange, magical child” named Miu Lan can change into anything they want to be, including a boy or a girl. While their classmates ask difficult questions, don’t invite the child to play, and think they are “weird,” their mother is unfailingly supportive. Although Miu Lan tries various strategies to fit in, they don’t—until they try just being themselves. Another child admits he was jealous of Miu Lan, who then shows the other kids that “it was fun to be many different things.”
The book is sweet and affirming, though some may be put off by the emphasis on Miu Lan’s initially negative experience and the opening spread that indicates the baby, which “couldn’t decide what to be. boy or girl?” also “looked very strange.”
