Like You, Like Me
Written and illustrated by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
Little, Brown and Company, 2024, 36 pp (unpaged)
ISBN: 978-0316330084
Vanessa and Tulsi are two girls who meet each other through writing letters as pen pals living on two different continents. Tulsi lives in the mountains in Northern New Mexico in the United States, and Vanessa lives by the sea in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa. As they write to each other, they ask questions about their daily lives. Although they live in different countries, speak different languages, and have different cultures, they find that they share many similarities. Tulsi asks Vanessa questions about how she says hello, if it smells fishy by the sea, and if she’s a thing finder. Vanessa asks Tulsi if she lives in a big house, where she goes to school, and what else she sees. When the girls have something in common or do the same thing, a bold “like you, like me!” will show up next to Vanessa or Tulsi. Although the author doesn’t have the girls say it in the text, the illustrations demonstrate how the girls are similar by either what they like, have, or do. Both girls have prankster brothers, love the outdoors, and collect things.
Tulsi lives in New Mexico in a small house made of mud but also has an RV that allows her family to go on adventures. She is homeschooled by her mother, loves to read books about animals and friends, and lives in an area where it hardly rains. Vanessa lives in Tanzania, and also has two homes but one with her mother and one with her father. She goes to school but it’s a long bus ride away and she has to leave for school early in the morning before the sun comes up. Unlike the high desert where Tulsi lives, it rains continuously during the tropical rainy season. Through the letters, Tulsi and Vanessa discover they come from different cultures, countries, and have different skin colors; one has parents who are together, while the other has parents who are not. They discover that their lives are very different, but they also find many similarities. They are able to see each other for who they are and so become great friends. They do not let differences get in the way of their friendship.
The watercolor illustrations pop with vibrant color. With single-page and double-page spreads, the illustrations work in conjunction with the text showing the perspectives of Tulsi and Vanessa, and demonstrating both similarities and differences in their lives. The backgrounds in the illustrations include the settings of each girl. For example, on the page where Tulsi is writing the first letter to Vanessa, readers can see the snow and mountains in the window. On the next page readers can see Vanessa on the couch and the sand and ocean through her window. The illustrations also include objects that can be found in their settings. The girls are sometimes depicted as if they are together. For example, in the first double-page spread, both girls are sitting on couches that look like they are joined. In one of the final illustrations the girl who is not there is in a lighter ghost-like image.
According to the author’s notes found at the end of the book, Jenny grounded the narrative in the actual correspondence between Tulsi, her daughter, and Vanessa whom they met through a librarian in Tanzania. Their friendship grew over four years with pen pal letters as well as zoom calls between Tanzania and New Mexico. Jenny provides readers with a picturebook where two girls, who do not live in the same continent, have never met in person, and do not look alike, build a friendship based on their similarities and interests.
Both this book and Kostecki-Shaw’s previous title, Same, Same but Different (2011), try to demonstrate that the characters have universal feelings and experiences (love of family, favorite pets) but that the experiences look different because of the geography. While her first title pointed out exotic details in Kailash’s home in India (riding elephants, a household of 23 family members, climbing trees with monkeys), the correspondence between Tulsi and Vanessa points more towards similar emotions and life events the girls experience and focuses less on the geography-based exotic details. So Like You Like Me is more effective at supporting unity across cultures.
This title naturally pairs with Jenny’s previous book Same, Same but Different (2011) because as the protagonists correspond with each other, they realize they share similarities and differences. Another title that features children getting to know each other through letters is Duncan Tonatiuh’s (2010) bilingual Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin. Other titles feature letters in which family members stay in touch (The Gardener, Sarah Stewart & David Small, 2007), advocate for desires (I Wanna Iguana, Karen Kaufman Orloff & David Catrow, 2004), or record experiences (Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind, Cynthia Grady & Amiko Hirao, 2018).
Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw is an author and illustrator and has written and illustrated five books. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and South Asia book award for Same, Same but Different. She lives on a homestead in New Mexico and creates her books in a studio that she and her family built themselves. She loves taking care of her animals, gardening with her family, and rural life. More information can be found on her website and in an interview with The Kids Bookshelf.
Cassandra Gallegos, Texas Woman’s University
© 2025 by Cassandra Gallegos
