This book is great!

The concept is that each set of pages has four animals, each with a sentence about them. But all four animals also have something in common- which is stated at the end of the pages.

While perfect for preschool aged children, if done correctly, it could stretch to 1st grade or so for a lesson.

The kids will be engaged because they will start trying to guess what the animals have in common.

The illustrations are gorgeous, too.

I received a digital copy in exchange for an honest review. But I'd definitely buy this one if I were still teaching!

I love the concept of this picture book, which features many types of animals on both land and sea, showing the variety and the things they have in common. These animals may have stripes or horns or fangs or wings but differ in a multitude of other ways. Children can learn so much while enjoying a fun visual nonfiction book. The whimsical drawings delight but maintain enough authenticity to portray the actual animals. Readers of all ages will enjoy this clever presentation.

Curnik’s bright, cartoonish illustrations pair perfectly with Tekavec’s fun yet informative text. I love teaching little ones about classification systems - total librarian here - so I can’t wait to add this title to my new library’s collection and use it as part of a STEAM lesson!

This is a perfect book when teaching concepts like same or different. With each page, children are tasked with determining whether the given animals are same or different.

This could be fun to look at with preschoolers, kids old enough to start recognizing patterns and making comparisons. You could even use it with slightly older kids to spark further exploration: can they find other ways that each set of animals are all different or all the same. It helps that the illustrations are quite appealing.

Lovely illustrations and scientifically sound.
This was a beautifully illustrated children's book, highlighting the similarities between many, apparently different, animals.
A blubbery walrus, a wrinkly elephant, a bristly warthog and a smooth narwhal are all very different at first glance, "but look closely now", they all have tusks. The catchy repetition of the phrase "but look closely now" worked really well to keep the rhythm and interest of the book's young audience.

My 15 month grandson was too young for the comparisons between the animals but he loved the images of the animals and making the noises of the ones he recognised.
Unfortunately the copy I received via NetGalley could not be viewed on my Kindle so this is not going to join The Forest Sleeps as one of our favourite books.

At the end of the book all the animals are repeated, with an opportunity to note more similarities between them - spots, numbers of legs, or webbed feet, for example. There is also an explanation for features such as tusks, shells, whiskers, etc.
I would imagine that this book would be popular in a pre-school library and for sharing with children between 2 and 5 years, it has plenty to offer for quite a varied age group.

Loved it!
With very nice illustrations by Pippa Curnick this book is a beautiful educational material to teach the children characteristics that several animal species share and that these have an adaptive functionality, namely they evolved with an important use for the animals.
What I loved most about Heather Tekavec's script is that despite being a complex biological concept, she exemplifies it here in a very simple, visual and intuitive way.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

Different? Same! by Heather Tekavec is a beautiful and playful animal book that seeks to engage young readers by pointing out differences between groupings of widely different animals and then asking what similarity exists. The similarity might be stripes, horns, whiskers or shells.

It is wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated. While the book is for young children (ages 2-5) I read it to my 5th and 6th grade students who enjoyed the book very much. It makes you consider animals in different ways and think about why these vastly different animals might all have horns, whiskers, shells, etc. We had fun with the last page of the book, pointing at various animals that all had a particular characteristic.

On each two-page spread, there are four animals. The animals each something about themselves or their habitat and each thing is different. Then we are told what they have in common or how they all the same, such as they have stripes or scales or tusks etc. I loved the science behind this but it is so much more than that. The message that no matter how different we all are, we are still all the same, we are human is a message that needs to be reiterated over and over. The illustrations are wonderful, so cute and playful. The vocabulary is descriptive, yet simple. the only complaint I have is that the animals are not named. It would be nice if they had been labeled so that children could ask questions and get further information. If they do not know what the animal is, that could prove to be difficult.

Thank you to Kids Can Press and NetGalley for this ARC. I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Clever book on highlighting how animals are different yet the same. Ends with a detailed glossary of animal characteristics. Great interactive book for young readers.

Note: This review will go up on GoodReads April 18, 2017.

The world is full of all sorts of animals. And while one person may see their differences, someone else may notice their similarities. Hedgehogs, puffer fish, chameleons, and sea urchins spend their time doing different things, but they all have something in common. They all have spikes. In groups of four animals at a time, readers will get to learn this fact and other similarities and differences of 40 animals.

With fun and attractive illustrations, and short but informative phrases, kids get to practice their pattern recognition skills, as well as some comparing and contrasting. Each spread includes four animals, frequently the animals seem extremely different and are from different biomes. Each animal tells readers one of their traits that is different from the others on the spread. These are short two word statements, frequently about how they move, such as “I swim,” or a characteristic, such as, “I’m yellow.” (Due to this, this title would make a good pick for language arts teachers covering verbs and adjectives.) Even though all the animals will tell you unique things about themselves, all four on each spread will have one trait in common. If you want to challenge little ones in their observation skills, try covering the bottom right corner of each spread that tells the common trait and see if they can figure it out before you read that part.

I liked that several animals got repeat appearances in different groupings, showing that they fit in multiple similarity groups as well as having multiple unique qualities. I also really appreciated that the illustrations included labels with the names of the animals so kids can learn some new animal names along the way (sea urchins and rhinoceros beetles don’t make it into a ton of picture books, so these will likely be new critters for many little readers). In the back of the book is further information on the similar traits each spread brought up and the purposes of those traits. Unlike many other back of the book sections that are aimed at the adults who read books to kids, this one uses phrases and descriptions in kid-friendly language. You could read this part to kids and they should easily get the gist of the purpose of a shell, flippers, antennae, etc. There’s also an interactive element in the back of the book. All 40 animals that appeared earlier reappear in a two page spread and readers are prompted to find more similar animals, like all those with spots or all those with webbed feet.

Will be recommending that the elementary library at our school consider purchasing this title. Definitely a great pick for kids who are animal lovers or studying animal characteristics, for building pattern recognition skills, for doing compare/contrast activities, and even for language arts.

I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love this simple non fiction book. I can imagine children working through each group of animals to guess where the similarities lie. The illustrations are lovely and there is a pattern to the presentation that will appeal to young children. The additional activities and information at the end of the book are great too.

Different? Same! is a gem of a book that gives us a little peek into the many wonders of the animal kingdom in a most unusual way. It puts together a bunch of animals that are totally unlike each other (like a zebra, a bumblebee, a tiger and a lemur, for example) and then points out a pattern that’s common to all of them. What can a zebra and a bumblebee possibly have in common? Why, the stripes, of course! Just the way a blubbery walrus and a wrinkly elephant have tusks in common. Simple and clever at the same time, this utterly charming book is ideal for kids who are just starting to learn about animal types and characteristics. What’s more, it also has a really nice glossary with bite-sized chunks of information (just the way I like it!) on the animal characteristics identified in the book and a super-fun activity.
What worked: Everything, including the absolutely marvellous illustrations.

Great story about differences but animals are the same too! Great illistrations! Good to read with kids and discuss with them about similarities and differences. Fun read! Highly recommend!

Great book for a beginning discussion of scientific classification but would also be good for younger grades for a discussion of compare/contrast.

Excellent non fiction picture book!
In each page you find a few animals that are, of course, very different, BUT if you take a closer look, there is something they have in common. For example, a tiger lives in a jungle, a walrus in the Arctic, a wombat in a forest, and a dog in a house, but they all have whiskers. A bat squeaks, a cat meows, a bear growls, a snake hisses, but they all have fangs. So animals can be different because of their color, size, behavior, habitat, but at the same time they can share characteristics like antennas, horns, wings, scales or shells.
The book is funny and very interesting. The pictures are really nice but simple, what helps to support all the information contained in the pages. At the end of the book there is also a summary of the uses and reasons of characteristics like manes, stripes, or scales.
5 stars.

Animals can be very different, but they can have something in common.

Each page shows five or six animals (mammals, fishes, carnivorous, herbivorous, ...) and what they have in common.

It's a nice illustrated book that provides a general idea about animals, showing distinctions and common features between animals.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.