As a Tommy Mommy, I was sent a copy of this book for review. As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Ariel has straight hair; Sophia’s is curly.  Ariel’s skin is muted and dusky; Sophia’s is clear and fair.  Ariel is precise and particular; Sophia is exuberant and extroverted.  These things – and many more – make them uniquely Ariel and uniquely Sophia.  All their lives we’ve worked at teaching them to appreciate this.

See, there are two “ditches” we can fall into when it comes to differences.  Either we compare ourselves with one another and decide we come up short because “different” is somehow “better.”  Or we stick our heads in the proverbial sand and pretend there are no differences – that we’re exactly the same.

I believe the God-honoring option is the third way – of recognizing the differences and celebrating them, because every trait that God has built into each of us is good!  (I’m not talking about sinful behavior or something, obviously.  I’m talking about our innate design as people.)  We are different – every one of us – because each of is is perfectly designed to fill the exactly role in God’s plan that He created us for.

I Love You All the Same

You’re probably wondering what on earth that has to do with the book at the top of this post.  Everything!  I Love You All the Same does a beautiful job of exactly what I just described – acknowledging and celebrating differences, while recognizing that our inherent value is the same.

The board book tells the story of three little cubs – two brothers and a sister – who are very different from one another in terms of their appearance, their skills & abilities, and their preferences.  But they love each other – and their mom and dad love each of them – with a love that isn’t dependent on or defined by any of these things.

The three cubs in the book aren’t even all the same kind of bear.  (There’s a panda, a brown bear, and a polar bear.)  This means that children from all kinds of families should be able to relate  – even those whose external differences are very great, perhaps as a result of adoption from different cultures.  At the same time, even children like my own, who share biological parents, can find their differences to be very striking!  (And believe me, it’s the differences they notice.  Nobody ever seems to notice how they’re the same as anyone else.)

The story was engaging, too.  There are some fun bear sounds in it, for instance, and certain words are emphasized in the text.  This allowed me to put some fun sounds into my reading of it, so even my antsy 1-year-old stayed engaged.  (He enjoyed hearing me growl, and growling back at me!)  He sat through the whole story.

Win It!

This giveaway is over.  Congratulations to Tasha D.!