Raffi feels different from his school mates. They all like being noisy and tumbling about on the playground, but Raffi likes to be quiet, read and sit by himself or with a teacher. Sometimes he is teased, but when he finds Miss Fernandez knitting a pretty scarf for her sister, he really wants to learn how to do it. He learns quickly, and soon he is asking his wonderfully supportive parents to let him buy wool to make something else. The result is a colourful four metre scarf for his dad's birthday, and it gets so long that when he is knitting on the school bus, he has to wind it round his neck three times! He knits everywhere, not particularly fussed by the other children's teasing because he just loves doing it. When there is to be a school play, he decides to make a cape for the Prince, and he does it with mum's help - a wonderful purple cape with yellow lining. The other children begin to see how talented Raffi is, and soon they are all wanting a Raffi design. He begins to think that he might become a 'famous designer one day', and his classmates learn to accept him exactly as he is. There is a lovely section where Raffi is asking his mum why he feels so different: 'Am I strange or weird? Why do I like to sing and draw and knit? Do you think I'm...girly?' 'I think you are very...Raffi', his understanding mum says. Perhaps he is a 'Tomgirl'? he asks. He has his own special talents, mum says, and his parents are proud of those talents. Whether or not this is a boy who is going to grow up either gay or wanting to have a sex change is not important at this stage, nor is it relevant. We are meeting a lad who is different and finding his different-ness hard to understand. The story is inclusive in the best sense of the word, and the glorious illustrations show us a loving boy in a loving family who is learning how to cope with himself. Great stuff!