Nearly exactly almost like me

Two brothers are playing at the park when the ice cream truck arrives. Both run toward it, but the older brother arrives first and gets in line. When his younger brother joins him, the kid who is next in line complains, "No cuts!" The older brother explains, "He's my brother," but the grumbler denies it, saying, "Him?" The older brother understands that their skin color and hair texture are different, but he insists that the siblings are "nearly, exactly, almost" alike. Both prefer ice cream in sugar cones and both dislike crunchy peanut butter. After several more dubious examples of family traits (both love trampolines!), the siblings end the squabble by befriending the other boy and his little brother. While a disagreement is at the story's center, when the older brother talks about his sibling's experiences from infancy onward, he expresses great warmth and family pride. With a gently amusing text and lively digital illustrations of the boys' interracial family, this tale of loyal brotherhood will surely bring back memories for caregivers and resonate with children, especially older siblings.

Dev, who was adopted, may not resemble his big sibling, but there's plenty that the two do share. As the older child, who narrates, waits in line for the ice cream truck, Dev joins his big sibling. "No cuts!" says another kid. "He's my brother," replies the protagonist, but the other kid looks skeptical. "We don't share the same skin color, plus my hair is curly and his is not." But, as the narrator informs readers, the two have many commonalities. Their parents eagerly awaited both children's arrival; the accompanying illustrations depict them gazing at an ultrasound image of the unborn protagonist and at photos of Dev as a baby just before they traveled overseas to bring him home. Both took swim classes as babies, threw up on the rug after overeating on Valentine's Day, and adore their trampoline. Without lingering on or dismissing how hurtful it can be to have adoptive relationships questioned, especially when one doesn't look like one's adoptive family, the story focuses on the siblings' loving bond. AuYeung's expressive illustrations cleverly work with the narrative to show how the children differ while highlighting how much they have in common. The children's mother is brown-skinned, their father presents East Asian, the protagonist is biracial, and hints in the text and art suggest that Dev is of South Asian descent. A sweet exploration of the familial similarities that matter.(Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.