Same, Same But Different, By Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

Same, Same but Different, written and illustrated by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw is set in two different places of the world. I choose this book because it was comparing and contrasting different places; America and India. The pen pals, Elliot and Kailash, write to each other about how they both love to climb trees, have pets, and ride a school bus. There world’s are different but they are very similar. It helps readers realize that not everyone is the same and we all have differences. “Kostecki-Shaw learned the saying ‘same, same but different’ to compare cultures throughout the book as they learn about each other” (Smith, 2011, 84). It shows just how one simple saying can be used to represent how everything in someone has a difference. Another
reason I choose this book is because the classroom I am going to read to is working on comparing and contrasting setting, characters, and plot. This book has a great example of how the setting is different. The genre of the book is fiction.
The awards it has won are: Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award (2012), Ezra Jack Keats Book Award New writer (2012) , and South Asia Book Award (2012). The format is carrying on a conversation going back and forth between first-person. It’s important to read to children because starting them at a young age they continue to read by themselves at older ages. This also increase there S.A.T scores since they have been listening to speaking for years. Young kids are always asboring what is being said or acted around them. They are observers of everything since surroundings are influential to them. Reading stories to young children will allow them to learn words faster and become fluently quicker. Reading aloud to children it will give them more interests in books. It improves all attitudes about reading from negative to positive ones. “But in reading aloud, we also: build vocabulary, condition the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure, create background knowledge, provide a reading role model, plant the desire to read” (Trelease, 2013, Ch.1,1). Since infants do use their eyes to see words. So people able to read are the ones to read-aloud and have them take in the words with their
ears. My audience for the read-aloud will be a fifth grade classroom at Wilson Elementary school. Wilson Elementary is a part of Davenport Community School District. When I was in fifth grade I attended this school myself. There are 27 students in the classroom: 14 male, 13 female. There are 3 ELL students and 2 Special Education students. The ethnicities of the class are: 2 Spanish students, 1 Serbian student, 3 Vietnamese students, 16 Caucasian students, and 5 African-American students. They classroom is set up very friendly and welcoming to the students and anyone new to the class. I will be reading to the whole class of students. Their teacher was previously mine as well; I had her while I was in fifth grade. I have no connection to the students in the class. I only know the teacher from having her as one myself.