Two boys stand on one side of a hedge.
One wonders what the ‘Other’ people are thinking about on the other side?
The second boy asks about the ‘Other’.
“Are there different kinds of people?”
Back and forth, they discuss the ‘Other’ people. One is sure they are very ‘Other’.
“They look different. They talk different. Everything about them is different.”
“Do they have heads and bodies? Do they have scales and feathers? Do they have hearts and brains?” asks the other.
More questions about the ‘Others’ reveal more and more that they’re not so ‘Other’ after all.
Even ‘here’ or ‘there’ is explored, until from the top of the hedge they discover that,
“Here is the same too!”
Kobi Yamada is a personal favourite, so I knew this full colour hardback picture book would be something special, even before I opened it.
Charles Santoso has captured the wonder and confusion of two boys talking, with a hedge between them and a strange, unknown, concept on the other side. The illustrations are on clear white backgrounds, without distractions from the boys or their dialogue.
The more questions asked and answered through the pages, the clearer the ‘Other’s become in the illustrations on the other side of the hedge, until in fact they look and feel and sound, just like us.
Maybe there isn’t really a here? Maybe there isn’t really a there? Maybe there’s just us?
Author – Kobi Yamada
Illustrator – Charles Santoso
Picture Book
(2026, Penguin Random, Empathy, Them & Us, Others, Refugees, Immigrants, Questions & Answers, Differences, Caring, Discovery, Family, Feelings, The Same, Racism, Prejudice, Real Life)