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Understanding and celebrating differences

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What are you willing to do to fit in with your peers? Are you willing to jump off the high diving board or eat something you hate or even risk your life? These books are about normal kids who are different but want to be like everyone else.

“The Boy Who Wouldn't Swim” is about a boy who feels left out because he is afraid to get in the pool. He sits by the pool the whole summer and watches all his friends and neighbors have a good time and learn how to swim. Although he feels jealous, he can't let go of his fear. Written and illustrated by Deb Lucke, it shows the losses the boy has in stubbornly refusing the help that is offered.

Try going to a new place for water play. Instead of your usual pool, try one of the splash parks or a pool across town. You can help your child to feel safe in the new environment while teaching them the fundamentals of water safety.

“Chrysanthemum” is a little girl who is different because of her name. She feels left out when the other kids tease her until a teacher named after a flower comes along. Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes, this sensitive story about having an unusual name is humorous too.

You can make a puppet to play out the story. Cut off the finger of an old glove. Glue on a small black pom pom for the nose and two google eyes. Cut mouse ears out of the leftover glove or some felt and glue them on. Add a yarn tail and you've made your very own “Chrysanthemum.”

“A Bad Case of Stripes” is about a girl who tries to fit in and pretends she doesn't like lima beans just to be like her friends. All goes well until she wakes up with an unusual disease that symbolizes - and at the same time thwarts - her desire to fit in.

Let your kids have fun with the idea of having “stripes.” Trace their hands on a large piece of paper and let them paint the hands with stripes or polka dots or any design they like.

“Among the Hidden,” by Margaret Peterson Haddix, is a chapter book written for independent readers. It is science fiction with an alternate future where there are Population Police that watch very carefully to make sure families only have two children. This story is about a third child who must live his life in hiding, feeling left out of the world his siblings enjoy. He must decide what to do with his life and he has to make a decision about staying in hiding and enjoying the love of his family or taking a fake ID and going on with his life somewhere else.

The theme of this story may seem dark, but it is told with empathy and ends with hope. You can discuss such issues with your children as passive resistance, conforming to societal norms, and what it means to be a loyal friend.

Be different! Take some books along to the pool for a long, cool summer.

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