Same Sun Here Audiobook

" "I like that library books have secret lives. All those hands that have held them. All those eyes that have read them." Meena pg. 87 "

" The two voices of Meena and River are convincingly real. What was impressive to me was the beauty of the secret lives of students. As a teacher I see only the school side of most students. I found the book refreshing and enjoyable. I would recommend it to any person whose interests lie outside of the ordinary. The depiction of the sanguine attitude of Mark, who loses a leg, seems a bit unreal, but otherwise the characters are well-played. The format will be sure to capture many readers. "

" On the surface of this story, told through letters from the two main characters to one another, Meena and River might seem to have little in common. After all, Meena is an Indian immigrant girl who lives in Chinatown in New York City while River is the son on a Kentucky coal miner. From a school assignment requiring students to write their pen pals, the two get to know each other well and become friends, sharing secrets and dispelling assumptions each has about the other. Their voices are unique since there is one author for Meena and one for River. Meena's letters are filled with her own musings on city life as well as questions for River. River is more reticent, but he, too, is curious about the world outside his own small town. The questions the two have about each other's cultures are answered in a straight forward fashion with no resentment; rather, the two want to satisfy the other one's curiosity. Clearly, there are many issues in the lives of each youngster, and even the threat to the mountains where River lives is something that becomes important to Meena as well. Although there are quite a few coincidences near the end of the book, I still enjoyed watching the friendship form right in front of my eyes. I also liked the ink-and-pencil illustrations that occasionally appear in Meena's letters. "

" Reading this book I felt a bit like I was reading my kids' mail - and I could only hope that our young people are as intelligent and well-spoken as Meena and River, the correspondents in the story. Unaware that even they can make a difference in their world, they do just that, encouraging, in an unpretentious way, readers to do the same. I'd highly recommend this book to any middle school teacher. "

" This is definitely one of my top five books ever read. "

" Loved this slow moving friendship story of pen pals in Kentucky and New York who had so little in common but became such good friends in the process of learning about each other's lives, families, and cultures. "

" I'm a huge fan of epistolary novels, and this one manages to be current by including photos and some email interactions. Silas House's unmistakeable Kentucky voice is present in River's letters, and I enjoyed the very natural interaction between River and Meena's characters. This is the second novel I've read this year that involves kids and activism (the first was LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK by Kristin Levine), and it manages to do so without ever being preachy. There's room for all types of folk in these pages, and found it a refreshing, simple and meaningful read. "

" Wow! Really great book and different plot. A little didactic and it sometimes seemed like a campaign front for Obama, but overall a great read. "

" Loved this book! As improbable as it seems, the pen pal friendship between Meena, from India, and River, from Kentucky, blossoms and gives us many beautiful insights into family, friendship, beauty, ugliness, and all kinds of everyday things. A joy to read. "

" I thought this was a great book for teens, but it ended abruptly. "

" Audio is awesome! "

" Another one from the short list of Newberry predictions. I really liked this book, and was sad to see it end. I loved the way the story was told in letters between the main characters. I would recommend this one, but my first Newberry pick is still Wonder. "

" Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. I didn't connect with the characters and some of their writing wasn't true to their age. Interesting issues were included. "

" A really nice middle years book. Would be great to accompany the Manitoba Grade 7 social studies curriculum. There are a ton of nice tie-ins about social activism, globalization, immigration, and what we all have in common around the world. "

" I loved this book - it is slightly younger YA than I normally read (12-13 year old main characters) and is entirely made up of the sweet correspondence between two pen pals who agree to be "their true selves" when writing to one another. "

" Read this on behalf of a 3rd grade teacher looking for a read-aloud - put on the Dud pile. "

" Such a neat writing style of two very different people finding commonalities hundreds of miles apart. "