I Am Different: Can You Find Me? - Softcover

Padmanabhan, Majula

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1570916403 ISBN 13: 9781570916403

Publisher: Charlesbridge, 2011

Synopsis

This clever picture book presents sixteen visual puzzles. On every page, readers must pick out the one item that is different from the rest--a different color, a different shape, reversed from left to right, or just asleep when others are awake!

The phrase "Can you find me?" is shown in a different language on every page.

Can you find me?
Me puedes encontrar?
Unaweza kupata mimi?

About this title

About the Author:

Manjula Padmanabhan is an author and illustrator in India.

Review:

An informational picture book presenting diverse languages to child readers, this offering from Indian novelist, playwright and cartoonist Padmanabhan and the Global Fund for Children is a tour de force.

Each page opening includes a brightly colored picture puzzle image with one item differing from the others, accompanied by the question Can you find me? written in one of 16 languages from page to page and supported by phonetic pronunciation guides. Supplemental text provides information about each language, including words potentially familiar to English speakers ( Algebra, giraffe, and candy are words you might know that come from Arabic, for example) or words and phrases for readers to learn ( Count to five in Cree: peyak, nîso, nisto, newo, nîyânan ). The resulting whole broadens readers awareness of how languages evolve and adopt words from one another, culminating in photos of a child using American Sign Language to present a non-textual visualization of language. Backmatter includes an answer key to the picture puzzles (with the caveat that there may be different right answers according to each reader s unique perspective) and a closing note about language diversity.

A substantive, engaging title for multilingual education. Bravo! --Kirkus Reviews

Manjula Padmanabhan I Am Different! Can You Find Me? The Global Fund for Children/Charlesbridge Publishing, 2011. Ages 4-8 In this exuberant celebration of differences, Indian cartoonist, novelist and playwright Manjula Padmanabhan makes being unique a source of delight and excitement, rather than something to fear or avoid. Each colorful spread displays an array of a single object, all apparently exactly the same. But wait one actually is different. Which one? Readers will love the interactive fun of these sixteen puzzles in which they must identify the one ladder, iguana, car, flower, or other object that is not like the others. (Where are the wheels on that car? Is that girl asleep?) As Padmanabhan writes, In the United States, eight out of every ten people speak only English. But in fact, both the country and the continent have always been a place of immigrants, and I Am Different encourages readers to remember those roots. Each spread repeats the question, Can you find me? in one of sixteen different languages now spoken in North America. Along with phonetic pronunciation, Padmanabhan offers a brief paragraph about each language, including fun facts like Cheetah, pajamas, and shampoo are words you might know that come from Hindi, or instructions on how to count to five in Cree, the most widely spoken indigenous language in Canada. By repeating the same phrase, Can you find me? , in a variety of languages, Padmanabhan brilliantly recognizes both the delights of being different as well as the commonalities we all share. Padmanabhan has illustrated twenty-one children s books, and is well known for her cartoon strip, Suki, which ran first in Bombay s Sunday Observer and later the Pioneer in Delhi. In I am Different, bright, kindergarten-friendly colors and cartoon-like illustrations make an engaging game of hide-and-seek that will provoke young pre-readers (and indeed, the adults next to them) to think deeply about and rejoice in our differences. While some individual spreads may challenge the youngest readers, the book remains a valuable teaching tool for colors, shapes and counting, a wonderful bonding book for parents and children or brothers and sisters, and most of all a joyful embrace of discovering and celebrating things that make us unique. --Paper Tigers Blog

Manjula Padmanabhan I Am Different! Can You Find Me? The Global Fund for Children/Charlesbridge Publishing, 2011. Ages 4-8 In this exuberant celebration of differences, Indian cartoonist, novelist and playwright Manjula Padmanabhan makes being unique a source of delight and excitement, rather than something to fear or avoid. Each colorful spread displays an array of a single object, all apparently exactly the same. But wait one actually is different. Which one? Readers will love the interactive fun of these sixteen puzzles in which they must identify the one ladder, iguana, car, flower, or other object that is not like the others. (Where are the wheels on that car? Is that girl asleep?) As Padmanabhan writes, In the United States, eight out of every ten people speak only English. But in fact, both the country and the continent have always been a place of immigrants, and I Am Different encourages readers to remember those roots. Each spread repeats the question, Can you find me? in one of sixteen different languages now spoken in North America. Along with phonetic pronunciation, Padmanabhan offers a brief paragraph about each language, including fun facts like Cheetah, pajamas, and shampoo are words you might know that come from Hindi, or instructions on how to count to five in Cree, the most widely spoken indigenous language in Canada. By repeating the same phrase, Can you find me? , in a variety of languages, Padmanabhan brilliantly recognizes both the delights of being different as well as the commonalities we all share. Padmanabhan has illustrated twenty-one children s books, and is well known for her cartoon strip, Suki, which ran first in Bombay s Sunday Observer and later the Pioneer in Delhi. In I am Different, bright, kindergarten-friendly colors and cartoon-like illustrations make an engaging game of hide-and-seek that will provoke young pre-readers (and indeed, the adults next to them) to think deeply about and rejoice in our differences. While some individual spreads may challenge the youngest readers, the book remains a valuable teaching tool for colors, shapes and counting, a wonderful bonding book for parents and children or brothers and sisters, and most of all a joyful embrace of discovering and celebrating things that make us unique. --Paper Tigers Blog

About this edition

• Publisher: Charlesbridge
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1570916403
• ISBN 13: 9781570916403
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Padmanabhan Majula