Others
A Story for All of Us
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A universal story of kindness, compassion, and the importance of looking for the best in others by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Do You Do with an Idea?
You have to wonder what they’re thinking. The other people.
They’re not from here. They’re over there.
They’re different.
Standing by the hedge that divides them, two children wonder what the people on the opposite side are like. They're not like us, one child insists. The other child wonders: How are they different? Can they fly? Do they have tentacles? Are they machines? Or are they human? And if they are, do they think and feel? Maybe, just maybe, the people here and the people there are not so different after all.
Written with gentle humor and illustrated with spare, emotionally powerful pictures, Others is a thoughtful exploration of how our assumptions can prevent us from connection and a beautiful reminder that we are all human beings living together on this earth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yamada and Santoso firmly challenge assumptions about "others" in this picture book composed as a dialogue between two children. While one child struggles to relate to "the other people" who appear across a tall hedge, saying "They look different. They talk different. Everything about them is different," a companion models an alternate approach, asking "They're different? What do you mean? Do they have heads and bodies?" Abundant fine lines precisely shade scenes that envisage possible creaturely or mechanical "others," then fellow humans. After the first figure refers to them as "the others. The ones from over there. They're not from here," the second child crosses the hedge to join a domestic scene, complicating the first child's definition of here and there. When the pair predictably, but no less movingly, meet in the middle, the moment allows for a poignant realization about perspective-taking that's bound to reverberate for readers. Protagonists are portrayed with pale skin; background figures are shown with various abilities and often fanciful skin tones. Ages 4–8.
