Milwaukee, Wisconsin (April 28, 2023) -

 Understanding how people are alike and different is an important part of child development as they learn about empathy and respect. Children emulate from the words they hear and what they see to determine how to treat others. In her new picture book, You and Me, author Caley Nunnally, a speech language pathologist, young readers are taught to celebrate the things that make us all different, creating a more interesting world.

 

In her poignant and impactful story, Nunnally shares that each of us seem the same in many ways—we all have eyes, ears, noses, and hands. But those things also make us very different. When one character in the story sees a dog, he gets happy and runs to pet it, while another character sees the same dog and runs over to his mother for safety, shouting, “He’s scary!”

 

The painterly and childlike illustrations bring an energy and liveliness to each spread, with many detailed scenes and objects for kids to pore over, giving them a visual sensation experience. Children will enjoy chiming in, repeating the similar mantra on each page, reiterating the beauty and importance of all of our many differences: “If everything looked the same to you and me, how boring would that be?”

 

A “tips” page at the back of the book helps families and educators of young children have a constructive discussion about what they’ve read together, including how to identify emotions, understand facial expressions and body language in others, and review situations requiring conflict resolution. A child’s ability to notice differences and similarities around them is an important part of their development, and that includes with people. With You and Me, children learn to reflect and respect these differences, understanding “mine make me ME and yours make you YOU.”