Same, Same But Different written and illustrated by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
From Goodreads: 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!
I’m still on the fence about this one. There’s a lot to like, particularly the idea that, although these too two boys live far apart in very different places, they share some similarities underneath the window dressings. The book is written by a woman who visited India and Nepal and set up an picture pal program at a school in Nepal.
The thing is, I’m not sure visiting makes you qualified to write about somewhere. Because the book is clearly geared toward young children it isn’t particularly deep. I don’t think that’s necessarily bad, because young kids don’t want to sit through long, detailed books. But I can’t help wondering if the fact that it isn’t deep is because she isn’t a cultural insider. Some of the ideas about Kailash felt stereotyped too (living with tons of family, owning lots of farm animals, the Taj Mahal pictured on his map). Why couldn’t Elliot be exchanging pictures with an Indian boy whose life is more similar? There are Indians who live lives comparable to Americans. Why do all narratives about African countries, Asian countries and India have to be about poor or disadvantaged families? Admittedly Kailash doesn’t appear to be poor or rich, but some of the details of his life seem to to be American code for poor (owning cows that live in the family compound, living in a small village, living with lots of family members).
I also didn’t like that the subject of nearly every drawing was initiated by Elliott. That made the story feel like it was Kailash comparing his life and world to an American life and world and making it fit in with that framework. Instead of it going both ways.
Looking at the map Kailash draws it has a lot of things Westerners associate with India. The humped cow, a peacock, and the Taj Mahal. No where in the book does it say where Kailash lives and India is an enormous country. While he may know the Taj Mahal, I’m not sure he would put it on his map unless he lived near it. I would be like me, living in California, drawing the Empire State Building on my map. Sure, it’s famous and I know it’s in New York, but it has very little to do with my world, especially as a kid. Kailash’s map seems like a map drawn for an American audience.
The title itself is taken from a phrase the author heard/learned while traveling. It sounds like broken English to me and makes me wonder if it’s okay that she used the phrase.
The story in a vacuum is fine, but I can’t quite decide about all the other noise around it. Will kids explicitly notice any of my complaints? No, but that doesn’t mean we want them internalizing ideas that could be harmful if they aren’t examined. It did win an Ezra Jack Keats award, though. I guess I would say I recommend this with reservations. Check the rest of your collection and see what kind of narrative is being created about India.
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