Self-Awareness: Why Am I Me? by Page Britt

WHY AM I ME,

AND NOT YOU?

A boy and girl see their city from the windows of an elevated train, with many people doing the things people do, strolling, walking dogs, playing in a small park, eating, talking and laughing with each other.

Independent of each other, they ponder the same universal questions in their minds:

WHY IS EVERYONE WHO THEY ARE?

How are they different from each other? There are many differences. Some are tall; some are not. Youngsters play together, and older people sit and talk or read to themselves. They have different skin colors and different ways of dressing. They are boys and girls, men and women, people of all kinds. Are they different in every way? Or are some things about them the same?

Asking questions about identity comes naturally to children as they discover a little at a time that they share some characteristics and not others. And this discovery is the theme of Page Britt's Why Am I Me? (Scholastic Press, 2017). Artists Sean Qualls and Selina Alko's cover illustration, done with the boy and the girl's faces portrayed as a Venn diagram point to the basic question of identity. What is different about me and you, and what is the same--what things do we share? And how do we find out what those things are?

In this story author Britt has the two children begin with a simple "Hi! Qualls' and Alko's illustrations are simple, done in soft, contrasting pastels, with the lively people standing out against the rectilinear shapes of the cityscape behind them. Britt's book offers a good way to start a conversation about being yourself, recognizing differences, and yet being aware of the commonality that we experience with others. "The interplay of art and text will invite the book's audience to grapple with themes of individuality, diversity, universality, and what it means to be human." says Horn Book's, starred review.