You've Got Mail

This last month I worked with Little Tomato on writing letters to pen pals; two cousins who she sees once or twice a year, and a 'friend' whom she has never met. Though she is just in the beginning stages of writing and reading, it is a great experience to keep up with playmates/ family she sees so infrequently, and to 'meet' someone new and learn all about each other through writing.

Same, Same but Different, by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

There is a great book called "Same, Same, but Different" written by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw which tells the story about pen pals, one from a big city in the USA and the other from India. They describe their families, pets, homes, etc. to each other through their letters. An example of their correspondence is when the boy from the United States writes about busy streets where he lives, with illustrations of traffic-crowded streets. The boy from India responds by noting that they don't have many cars, but he still has busy streets and his illustrations show streets full of carts, cars, elephants and pedestrians. Same, same but different.

We read this book and talked about how our new pen pals live in different parts of our country and how we would learn about our friends and family from the letters she will write and receive. It is a great book to introduce diversity, geography and starting a pen pal with someone new. I highly recommend it.