John Jensen Feels Different

PreS-Gr 2—Simple storytelling is blended with spare, black-outlined, color-saturated drawings to tell about the emotional resonance of individuality and belonging. The internal monologue of universally felt insecurities is played out by a crocodile, John Jensen, who feels different all the time, sometimes in public among fellow (human) commuters or coworkers, but even when he flosses and brushes and dresses in private. He looks at a family portrait of reptiles indistinguishable from himself, but thinks he must be adopted. He worries and tries to identify his difference. Is it his necktie? His tail? During a visit to the emergency room when a tail-tying remedy causes a fall, Jensen is met by a very large elephant doctor, who calmly explains that no two individuals are exactly the same. "Some are like this, and some are like that," he says. The book's ending has John Jensen still feeling different, "but that is just fine." Because the character's alienation is pervasive, this title speaks to the idea of perception of self on a deeper level than other books on a crowded shelf about self-acceptance. Read it with Amy Kraus Rosenthal's Spoon (Hyperion, 2009) for a well-rounded storytime.—Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC