"Along Came a Different" by Tom McLaughlin (Bloomsbury Children's Books) @KidsBloomsbury

Do you dare to be different? Here's a crackingly good allegorical story for little ones...
Tom McLaughlin's "Along Came a Different" instantly caught our attention thanks to that title.

Well, what on earth is a different?

As it turns out there are lots of 'differents' in this story but things start out really simply with a happy bunch of colourful shapes. They love everything red, they love their pointy hats and they love loud music.

But then...yes indeed you've guessed it..Along came a different!

A different set of shapes, yellow squares who love their yellow cars, really do not like loud music - and are (truth be told) a bit grumpy.

The yellow squares don't like the red circles and vice versa. Well, they're just too...different! Things go from bad to worse with the arrival of blue triangles, again different, and again pretty intolerant of the others - and soon the land is being divided up, rules are being drawn and the whole place is in a constant state of agitation.

You can see the moral here, and it's fantastically handled by Tom, showing children that 'different' can mean anything - but there's a whole lot more fun to be had if everyone embraces differences rather than confronting them, sticking up walls, dividing up territory or being grumpy and aggressive.

Someone care to send a copy of this to Mr Trump?

"Along Came a Different" by Tom McLaughlin is out now, published by Bloomsbury Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).