*Review* We're the Same, We're Different and We All Belong by KayJay Miller

 

Genre: Children's 5-7 years

Published: September 28, 2023

Pages: 31

Do you want to raise a child who's kind to themselves and kind to others?

This book will help children:

• Love and accept themselves just the way they are
• Appreciate and celebrate other people's differences
• Build their self-confidence and self-esteem
• Nurture their tolerance, empathy and kindness

The best social emotional learning / SEL book for raising caring children

In her own heartwarming, hilarious words, Marnie, a spunky multiracial kindergartener, explores the concept of diversity. She finds that differences (e.g. race, size, accent, learning styles, ways of moving around) are only one part of a person's unique story.

Want to guide your child... but don't quite know how?

This book is an engaging, interactive framework for parents and teachers to introduce that crucial conversation that will transform children's attitudes towards themselves and others.

This engaging, interactive picture book asks readers a series of heartwarming, hilarious questions alongside a quirky main character, and gracefully illustrates that the best friendships can be made when we love what’s different (and the same) about each other.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

This is a story told by a little girl who is talking mostly about herself and what makes her unique. She moves on from that to ask the reader questions as well, to illustrate that even when we may be a bit different, we're not really all that different. She basically makes comparisons between whatever the answer may be to herself, showing how even though it's not exactly the same, it's pretty similar. 

This is a great book to teach kids empathy and to maybe be a little kinder to others who seem different from us, because in the whole scheme of things, they're not really all that different. I love that message for children because that's how we fix the things that are currently so broken in our society. You can't teach an old dog new tricks after all, but we can raise a better future. The illustrations look almost like real photos, but not quite, and I think they may be AI generated (just because that's becoming so prevalent, I don't know for sure though.)

Overall I give We're the Same, We're Different and We All Belong 4.0638 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

KayJay Miller has been... a Caribbean child dancing in full carnival costume, an Oxford student cycling everywhere and an award-winning writer (theater, film and children's TV). She is now Mom to an amazing, cheeky 6 year old and an author of kids' books that are a force for good.

She writes Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) children's books that help parents and teachers bond more deeply with their children and facilitate crucial conversations that they may never have had otherwise. These books help nurture happy, mindful, resilient and compassionate children that have the tools to live their best lives.