Just like you
Book Details
Just like you
Jo Loring-Fisher. Burley Gate: Otter-Barry Books, hb 978 1 9130 7481 4, 2021, £12.99, 32pp.
Picture book, fiction, 2+ years
A girl talks, runs, and dreams, like many other girls. She and her family are refugees – they are still like us.
Jo Loring-Fisher’s pastels push the darker and less joyful reality of the girl’s life in a refugee camp to the side. It’s easy to be surprised by this representation and it’s easy to be uplifted by it at the same time.
Just like you rejects despair and embraces hope by pointing out to children what we have in common and what we all do. The emphasis here is on the shared reality of childhood experiences: children run, children are cuddled, children dream. Just like you is a reassuring text, modest in words but strong in its message, as it invites us to cherish is what is universal.
It is a perfect book to be read to children on their parents’ laps. Older children will enjoy it too, as a prompt for a discussion on universal values and social friendship. Its eye-catching and calming illustrations will soothe both child and adult readers.
Review by Benjamin West