What kind of genre is necessary to demonstrate that two characters--despite their differences in nationality and identity--share some of the same celebrations? The same concerns? The same worries? The same sun?

Epistolary, of course. Correspondence between two characters is well-recognized within the canon to include classics like THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS and DADDY LONG-LEGS.

And here, Silas House and Neela Vaswani create a memorable relationship--carried by letters written back and forth--between River, a teen from Kentucky, and Meena, a young Hindi girl living in New York City. In their exchanges we see a character arc come through for each with room to grow on both sides and on the inside of both.

Aside from the letters written back and forth, River and Meena provide younger readers with information about Kentucky and New York City that would ordinarily be handled in the narrative. It's masterful here, though, with each character playing "Did you know?" with the other. An interesting inclusion that might prompt discussion in MG/YA classrooms is a section from the U. S. Citizenship Test that Meena's parents are trying to pass as part of the story.

Relationships between River and his grandmother and Meena and her older neighbor play out beautifully in the letters back and forth.

River gets a chance to talk about mining and mountain top removal. Students interested in learning more about mountain top removal might like to read the narratives collected by Silas House and Jason Howard called SOMETHING'S RISING, a powerful collection that includes Appalachian voices talking about how this system affects their everyday lives.

As a teacher consultant with The National Writing Project, I have seen many fine, fine demonstration lessons using Mark Teague's DEAR MRS. LARUE as an anchor text/read-aloud into a demonstration of letter writing as a format or means of correspondence. Many times, I have seen MG/Secondary participants in the room wondering what using this book (very nice and funny) would look like with older students. What Silas House's newest title offers is a Writer's Workshop ready text for the Middle Grade and Secondary teacher to use.

Further, introducing and sharing a book like SAME SUN HERE might bring up a sense of advocacy/agency for some young readers making this title a rigorous book for its potential affective properties.

As a "wheelhouse title," SAME SUN here provides multiple opportunities to extend invitations to readers to consider related topics making this Candlewick title a nice match for the Common Core Standards being implemented by many states:

Hindi Culture
Appalachian Culture
Mountain Top Removal
Immigration Law and U. S. Citizenship
Disasters Related to Mining

and many, many more.

I could see this title being stretched out over the course of a year with younger readers and writers hearing the story in installments which might allow for their own correspondence back and forth with River and Meena through a writing strategy called thought capture.