Same, same but different

Author: Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

Narrator: Maxwell Glick

Genre: Contemporary Picturebook

Original publication date: September 2011

Boo description: Elliot lives in America, and Kailash lives in India. They are pen pals. By exchanging letters and pictures, they learn that they both love to climb trees, have pets, and go to school. Their worlds might look different, but they are actually similar. Same, same. But different!
Through an inviting point-of-view and colorful, vivid illustrations, this story shows how two boys living oceans apart can be the best of friends

Thoughts:

This is a very easy read and warm story. Two young boys share their likes and a few their lives they notice many things have a different way but they have both similar tastes and their worlds are not different after all.

This is a great example of books young children should be reading and trying to understand that people in other countries are just like them.

The only thing I did not enjoy greatly is that this book falls under a very widely spread stereotypical display of Western cultures. The boy in USA lives in a city (urban area) while the boy from India lives in a rural area with a big extended family and raising animals, it seems a bit too much to ask but why can't they both be from similar social background to portray a better idea of equality or show a boy from a rural USA area and the boy from India as part of a family in an urban setting?

There has to be a better way to introduce children to global perspectives in books.

It is important to give examples of other cultures but it would be better if the children saw the outside countries as something more than a place of small-town and rural areas, not everywhere else they do not have to be a less privileged kid.

Oh well, I guess we're still giving baby steps in certain areas of social enlightenment.

This book was read in a single seating obviously, I am really not sure but I will not count this as part of my books read this year as its a very short picture book but still something I am glad to have read. We need to educate children about race and different cultures and the only way to know where to begin is to explore and find out what options we have out there before trying to pass on the books to children or parents.