DIFFERENT JUST LIKE ME
by Lori Mitchell
More of a teaching text, Mitchell’s story is really a series of observations, ostensibly by a child, about how people differ and how they are the same. The narrator sees children speaking in sign language, which is not how she communicates, but she waves to one, who waves back. She sees a blind woman calling an elevator, and describes its Braille labels, but notes that the woman gets off at her floor, “just like me.” A bearded man at a lunch counter orders the same sandwich she does; she meets a woman who likes to draw, as she does. The lesson concludes: “Like the flowers in Grammie’s garden, they were all different from one another, and that’s what made them so great.” The book’s practical aspects—the inclusion of the American Sign Language alphabet and a sample strip of Braille’strengthen it; the logical problem weakens it: to assemble racial differences, physical disabilities, food preferences, and artistic proclivities under one banner may confuse children. A well-intentioned work. (Picture book. 4-8)