Review: Same Sun Here

Book: Same Sun Here
Author(s): Silas House & Neela Vaswani
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: February 2012
Why I Picked It Up: Given to me by the Children's Librarian at the library where I work and I also knew one of the author's would be coming to speak at my library.

You know those books you read and just a few pages in you realize that you're immersing yourself in a story that is just something special. Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani was one of those books for me. Generally a very fast reader, it took me three days to finish this (for me) tiny little book.  I kept picking up other books, magazines, newspapers and even watched much more television than I normally do. I just didn't want me experience with Meena and River (the two main characters) to end.

Here is the Goodreads description:

Meena and River have a lot in common: fathers forced to work away from home to make ends meet, grandmothers who mean the world to them, and faithful dogs. But Meena is an Indian immigrant girl living in New York City’s Chinatown, while River is a Kentucky coal miner’s son. As Meena’s family studies for citizenship exams and River's town faces devastating mountaintop removal, this unlikely pair become pen pals, sharing thoughts and, as their camaraderie deepens, discovering common ground in their disparate experiences. With honesty and humor, Meena and River bridge the miles between them, creating a friendship that inspires bravery and defeats cultural misconceptions. Narrated in two voices, each voice distinctly articulated by a separate gifted author, this chronicle of two lives powerfully conveys the great value of being and having a friend and the joys of opening our lives to others who live beneath the same sun.

This is spot on and I truly couldn't do this books anymore justice than this did. The decision by the authors to each write a separate character was a great one, giving them both a distinctive voice and very clear world view. The related decision to write the book in a series of letters between two characters gave the reader an added dimension of intimacy and camaraderie with the characters that I think is especially important in a children's book. I have sometimes found that books written in letters can a times feel a bit stiff and self-conscious, but Mr. House and Ms. Vaswani completely avoided this and both characters felt real and very natural.

I was doubly lucky that after reading this book I was able to meet Ms. Vaswani in person as she addressed a group of children from a local elementary school and even take a very small part in her presentation and do an introduction to my library and its program prior to her speaking. I was completely star struck and clearly behaved like a huge nerd, but I'm happy to say that both she and her husband (who I also met and whose name I can't remember for the life of me due to all the book fangirl action described here) are incredibly nice and gracious in person and I actually had a hard time not calling her Meena and asking if she wanted to be best friends. Despite my obvious inability to behave like a normal person in social situations, as I said she was incredibly gracious and actually complimented and took a picture of a small display of books I had arranged.

My rating: READ IT ASAP!

*Image from Goodreads.