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  • Published: 30 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781368104197
  • Imprint: Disney Publishing
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 40
  • RRP: $38.00

Lilibet Makes a Friend



Lilibet has lots of friends—it’s just that they are all imaginary! Can she build the perfect real-life friend?

With a relatable neurodivergent main character and a message of friendship and acceptance, this funny and heartfelt picture book is perfect for 3-5 year olds.

Lilibet has lots of friends—it’s just that they are all imaginary! Can she build the perfect real-life friend?

With a relatable neurodivergent main character and a message of friendship and acceptance, this funny and heartfelt picture book is perfect for 3-7 year olds.

Lilibet has tools, a lab, and a notebook. She also has lots of friends, like Calico Cate, Tom Zombie, and Dire Pup. It’s just that they’re all imaginary. So she plans a new project, REAL FRIEND 1.0, and makes a list of requirements:

  • Knows the difference between a bug and an insect (extremely important!)
  • Never calls her robot face
  • Or computer brain
  • Does not ask if Lilibet is a boy or a girl

As she sets out to build a friend, she is joined by Paul “Peanut” Shelley, who is keen to help, whether Lilibet likes it or not. It turns out, sometimes the best of friends come from unexpected places.

Celebrated author Kersten Hamilton writes from her own experience on the autism spectrum, creating a one-of-a-kind neurodivergent protagonist in a story brimming charm and humor.

  • Published: 30 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781368104197
  • Imprint: Disney Publishing
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 40
  • RRP: $38.00

About the authors

Kersten Hamilton

Kersten Hamilton was born in a trailer in the mountains of southern New Mexico. By their sixth birthday they knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. A writer! This would prove to be difficult, as a wayward fairy (apparently not invited to Kersten’s christening) gifted the child with dyslexia and dysgraphia topped with a dollop of autism spectrum disorder. Unaware of the academic and social trouble ahead, Kersten set off to have an exciting childhood tracking caribou and arctic wolves across in Alaska, catching tiny tree frogs in the swamps and rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, and chasing dust devils and rattlesnakes across the high desert of New Mexico. Kersten escaped electrocution when a typhoon blew power lines down over yet another trailer in a swamp in Washington state, and didn’t drown when a station wagon spun out of control onto thin lake ice in Alaska. Most of the bullets missed, none of the incidents with bears, snakes, wolves, or angry moose were fatal. It was the perfect childhood for anyone aspiring to be a writer!  When not writing, Kersten collaborates on Minecraft adventures with a husband, several grown children, and more than several grandchildren.