"We have more in common than that which divides us," activist and humanitarian Jo Cox wisely observed. But how can we discover those common threads? That's the quest Someone Just Like You offers in its 32 colorful, buoyant pages.
On a page showing 20 kids with names ranging from Dyal to Zahra, readers discover that even if you and others speak different languages and have different names:
"On the outside you look different,
but your feelings are the same."
New York Times bestselling illustrator David Roberts has gone all out to make these kids delightfully different. One sports a purple crab hat. A shy kid sits, knees akimbo, holding a stuffed lion. One kid does ballet leaps with a prosthetic leg. The clothes and skin tones are an array of possibilities.
It's not unusual for a children's book to remind readers that others share the same fears and joys they do. What makes this book stand out is where it goes next: "But you'd both feel so much better if you knew that someone cared." It then takes on some hard topics in a way that a four-to-eight year old child can grasp without being traumatized. Fleeing war, for instance, enters the picture as a child who had "to leave their home / because they didn't want to fight."
Effortlessly rhyming, the book asks the reader questions that encourage compassion. Would you share with a child in need and help them feel at home, for instance, or listen to their story and tell them yours, or "help them to feel safe again / and chase their fears away?" This sharing just may lead to finding a friend "just like you" — even if they look quite different.
Author Helen Docherty has been writing stories since she was six. Most of her career has been devoted to being a language teacher, which has allowed her to experience many different countries and cultures. Now she loves going into schools to tell her stories to children and inspire them to write stories of their own. We hope that a warm and welcoming compassion informs their stories, as it has hers.
