This Is How We Play, Jessica Slice
This Is How We Play, Jessica Slice
List: $5.00 | Sale: $3.50
Club: $2.50

This Is How We Play
A Celebration of Disability and Adaptation

Author: Jessica Slice, Caroline Cupp

Narrator: Andrea Emmes

Unabridged: 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/25/2025

Categories: Children's Fiction


Synopsis

A jubilant, inclusive audiobook that features families at play, each with a family member who has a disability.

With love and adaptation, this is how we play! This joyful listen-along with an empowering refrain, from disability rights activists Jessica Slice and Caroline Cupp, demystifies and respects how disabled people and their families use adaptive, imaginative, and considerate play so everyone can join in the fun.

Back matter consists of a kid-friendly guide to thinking, learning, and talking about disability; a glossary of the different disabilities represented throughout the book; and a guide for grown-ups on ways to encourage discussions about disabilities with the children in their lives. Throughout, This Is How We Play centers, affirms, and encourages the disabled children and adults who are already doing the challenging work of advocating for themselves and finding strength in community.

About The Author

Jessica Slice is a writer who often writes about her experience as a mom who uses a power wheelchair. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Glamour, HuffPo, and more. Caroline Cupp is a disabled progressive pastor in Philadelphia.Kayla Harren is an award-winning illustrator of numerous children’s books, including the Lambda Literary Award winner Calvin. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a BFA in illustration, and lives in Minnesota with her husband and dogs.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shannon on October 04, 2024

A wonderfully inclusive book that depicts families that have members with a variety of disabilities as they go about their lives and celebrate many forms of play. Great illustrations and an educational glossary of the disabilities shown in the story. This was written by two moms concerned about the......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on March 06, 2025

This Is How We Play is an absolutely stunning picture book in every way, and I am so glad I had the chance to read it. I am disabled and many people in my life are disabled, and I felt incredibly seen by this picture book. I loved how it showed a huge variety of disabilities, a huge variety of acces......more

Goodreads review by Aolund on October 12, 2024

I mean, just totally lovely. Really well-written, with rhyming text that flows effortlessly and packs lots of different disabilities, adaptations, and other broad concepts (love, family, pain, play) into appealing, readable text. Illustrations are warm and appealing and depict lots of different fami......more

Goodreads review by Beth on January 23, 2025

We need more books like this one. Representation matters so much and we must do better in 2025......more

Goodreads review by Len on February 26, 2025

THIS IS HOW WE PLAY is a beautifully written and illustrated book focusing on disabled children and adults and how the nondisabled respond to them and should interact with them. That sentence was written without malice or accusation; this book educates us on how to approach the disabled verbally, fo......more


Quotes

★ "[T]his buoyant picture book spotlights how, 'with love and adaptation . . . we play!' Slice and Cupp utilize rhyming couplets on each spread to show play in inter-abled relationships." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Slice and Cupp, themselves disabled, realistically acknowledge challenges while keeping an upbeat, reassuring tone . . . Harren’s detailed portrayals of myriad physical, sensory, and developmental conditions warmly embrace disability’s broad spectrum, and characters’ faces radiate love and enthusiasm . . . A wonderfully inclusive celebration of disability and family." —Kirkus

"[A] joyful and empowering exploration of families at play . . . [Harren's illustrations] are balanced between bold foregrounds and muted backgrounds, creating very inviting pages to explore beyond the relation to the text. A must purchase for all libraries to fill much needed positive disability representation in picture books." —School Library Journal