No Difference Between Us (Paperback)

Jess and Ben are twins. Jess is a girl and Ben is a boy but in all the BIG ways, there is NO difference between them!

Combining cheerful illustrations and a familiar narrative, this book will help children to understand that, fundamentally, people are more the same than they are different. Children are visual learners and the match between illustrations and text in this story will assist them in recognizing that we are all human – everyone feels, and everyone has hopes and dreams. Our gender should never label us or limit our potential.

Throughout the text, open-ended questions are provided so children can voice their own experiences. Further in-depth Discussion Questions are provided encouraging the reader and the child to consider each scenario, and engage with the message.

Jayneen (aka Jay Dale) is an experienced primary school teacher, editor, author and publisher. She started her teaching career in the 1980s as a primary school teacher in rural Queensland. She then moved to Victoria and taught at a number of inner-city schools. In 1985, Jay had a change of career and became an educational editor and publisher. In the early 90s, Jay and her partner moved to Japan to work as English teachers. They lived and worked in Japan for over three and a half years. In fact, Jay's first daughter was born there. On returning to Australia, Jay began work as an educational author/packager. Since that time, she has authored and produced numerous award-winning titles for the educational publishing industry. Jay is also an accomplished children's book author, writing a number of titles for such literacy series as ZigZags, Totally Kidz, Deadly and Incredible, and a children's picture book series for Penguin. During 2008 and 2009, Jay returned to teaching. That experience refreshed her understanding of issues facing children, teachers and parents. She is currently working with an educational publisher as lead author of a new literacy series. Jay has written over 100 titles in that series. Jay is more importantly a mother of three teenage girls and has been a school councillor at her local primary school for over seven years. This time spent in primary schools both as a teacher and a parent inspired her to ask the question of her community: 'What are we doing in schools to protect our children from sexual interference?' When she realised very little was actually being done, she decided to use her authoring and publishing skills to write a book to help parents, carers and teachers to broach the subject of self-protection and to encourage children to speak up.