“Just Like You” Teaches Children to Value Differences

Reports of childhood bullying are in the headlines. Kids pick on others because they don’t act the same or have some distinguishing feature or attribute that singles them out as different. Children want to be like their contemporaries and, when someone isn’t, the temptation to bully often rises.

Bullying need not be part of everyday life. When parents and caregivers model accepting behavior, kids pick up the cues. Everyone isn’t exactly the same: some have physical or mental disabilities; some need aids like a wheelchair or brace and others need devices to hear or speak. Youngsters who are shown early on that differences in others are just that, and that the other person is simply dissimilar but no better or worse, learn to accept that all people are basically the same.

Advocate against intolerance and give customers a way to do the same with Just Like You, a story that aims to explain what being “different” is about to young children. Stock this informative, easy to understand book and help everyone spread the word that we are each valuable in our own, particular way.

Written in a simple, endearing style on a level that resonates with kids as young as preschoolers up through the K-3 years, Just Like You tells the story of what happens in idyllic Piney Forest where many creatures live in harmony. But, Boris and Henry are not so fortunate. They play and live on the edge, shunned because they walk and talk differently than the other animals and behave in other ways that set them apart. Then a dangerous fire threatens the woodland. Bravely, Boris and Henry work to warn those who have bullied them and help everyone find a way to safety. At the end, it’s clear that deep down Boris and Henry are just like everyone else.

This thirty-page, hardcover book is the work of writer Robert Kroupa who is turning over profits to the Just Like You Foundation and the organizations it works with to help ensure that anyone, at any age, should be celebrated and nurtured, no matter what kind of disability they have. The message is reinforced by the magical illustrations of Hannah Harrison, an award winning miniature painter, who lives in Oklahoma City with her husband and daughter.

Published by Seven Legs Press, Chicago, Just Like You’s message of universal acceptance is one that children need to hear early and often so they grow up accepting others and treating people with understanding and tolerance.

Writer Robert Kroupa was bullied as a child, grew up with insights about the situation, and went on to become a successful businessman and philanthropist. He had a young friend who lived with her wheelchair-bound aunt, a grandmother with Alzheimer’s and a grandfather debilitated by a stroke. Kroupa noted that when the child looked at her family she saw only them, not their disabilities.

Inspired by this child as well as the tenacity and courage of patients at the Rehabilitation Institution of Chicago, Kroupa wrote this story for young children, hoping to inspire them to accept, appreciate and celebrate the similarities and differences in all of us.

Here’s an easy-to-understand tale with a powerful message. Just Like You reminds us that intolerance threatens us all — not just the victims. Parents, caregivers, teachers and anyone who interacts with youngsters will appreciate the magical illustrations and simple words; kids who have the story read to them will absorb an important truth.

Learn what it means to be Just Like You: www.justlikeyoufoundation.org