Nautilus Book Award, Gold Medal
Parents’ Choice Award, Gold Medal
Evelyn Thurman Young Readers Books Award
E.B. White Read-Aloud Book of the Year Award
South Asian Book Award
Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year
Boston Globe pick
New York Public Library Pick
Anti-Defamation League Book of the Month Pick
Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s Children Book Award Master List
International Reading Association selection
Kids’ Indie Next List#1 in the U.S. on the Spring 2012

Same Sun Here

*Featured on The Daily (NY Times podcast), June 12, 2020: “The Struggle to Teach From Afar”

*Featured on CBS “Free Books in Vending Machines Save Summer.” Starring Marley Dias #1000BlackGirlBooks

Same Sun Here is a middle grade novel-in-letters, written by Neela Vaswani and Silas House. For ages 9 and up.

Meena and River have a lot in common: fathers forced to work away from home to make ends meet, grandmothers who mean the world to them, and faithful dogs. But Meena is an Indian immigrant girl living in New York City’s Chinatown, while River is a Kentucky coal miner’s son.

As Meena’s family studies for citizenship exams and River’s town faces devastating mountaintop removal, this unlikely pair become pen pals, sharing thoughts and, as their camaraderie deepens, discovering common ground in their disparate experiences.

With honesty and humor, Meena and River bridge the miles between them, creating a friendship that inspires bravery and defeats cultural misconceptions. Narrated in two voices, each voice distinctly articulated by a separate gifted author, this chronicle of two lives powerfully conveys the great value of having a friend and the joys of opening our lives to others who live beneath the same sun.

If interested in coordinating a school or library visit, contact Candlewick Press at appearances@candlewick.com

“A finely detailed depiction of two separate worlds that demonstrates a deep well of shared humanity…a very modern cross-cultural story narrated by way of an old-fashioned pen-pal correspondence.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Even better than reading a refreshingly honest story by one talented writer is reading one by two such writers… their voices are so open, true, and humorous”

—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

“This tender and breathtakingly honest story about unlikely friendships and finding common ground will captivate readers… In an era when social media permeates every area of our lives, Meena and River’s old-fashioned camaraderie through letters feels refreshing and true.”

—School Library Journal (starred review)

“By sharing the details of their lives, Meena and River enlighten one another about misconceptions they’d had, and start to see each other as more similar than different. Their honesty creates an intimacy between them, and also shows young people how to ask somewhat prickly questions while conveying the underlying place of friendship from which it springs.”

—Shelf Awareness for Readers

Meena and Dadi’s beloved mountains, as seen from Sister’s Bazaar. Uttarakhand, India. The foothills of the Himalayas, the youngest and highest mountains in the world.

Langur monkeys playing. Mussoorie, India. Photo by Marianne Maeckelbergh.

“We live in Chinatown, on the corner of Orchard and Hester. The F train on Delancey is very nearby.” -Meena, Same Sun Here

Subway roaring by. F train, Delancey Street, New York City. What would Kiku do?

Little Red Lighthouse, under the George Washington Bridge, New York City.

Sister’s Bazaar, India. The cow that inspired Gopi (who walked Dadi home). Photo by Marianne Maeckelbergh.

In May of 2006, Neela went on the “Writers and Photographers Tour” to protest mountaintop removal mining. The tour was sponsored by KFTC. This is how all the beautiful Appalachian Mountains, where River lives, are supposed to look.

This is what River’s Mamaw was fighting to stop.

What’s left of a mountain near River’s house. To find out more about mountaintop removal, visit I Love Mountains.

Essex Street, New York City. Ana Maria’s building.

Sparkling view of the Hudson River from the inside of the Little Red Lighthouse.

Flag Hill. Uttarakhand, India. Where Meena and Dadi liked to sit and watch the fog drift. Click here if you want to watch and hear it, too!

Aarthi plate. Kempty, India. Photo by Ankit Pogula.

Lady Liberty at dusk, as seen from the Staten Island Ferry. “Everything at Ellis Island reminded me of our family, except that we came on planes, not boats.” -Meena, Same Sun Here

“My brother is seventeen years old. He has a big smile and strong legs because he is a bike messenger. All the girls love him, which makes him very conceited.” -Meena, Same Sun Here

Wall in Chinatown, New York City. Near Mrs. Lau’s Senior Citizen Center. “Mrs. Lau has been in America twice as long as she was ever in Hong Kong. She has lived in her apartment for fifty-five years. She says NY Chinatown is home.” -Meena, Same Sun Here

“Refreshing, relieving, sweet and enlivening.”

— Jordan B. Nielsen, The Rusty Key

Two things Neela has in common with her character, Meena:

Her grandmother is from Mussoorie, India, too.
When Neela was twelve, she worked backstage in a production of “A Chorus Line.”

Two things Neela doesn’t have in common with Meena:

Neela is an only child.
Neela can’t draw anything but sad-looking stick figures (luckily her friend Hilary Schenker, who made Meena’s illustrations, can draw BEAUTIFULLY!)

To find out more about Silas House, the author of River’s letters, check out his website.

LINKS FOR KIDS (OK, ADULTS, YOU TOO!)

To learn more about immigration:
Immigration: Stories of Yesterday and Today
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Remember Carlos? Bullying is a serious problem (LGBT bullying, cyberbullying, etc). Find out more here.
Visit the Smithsonian’s project, Race: Are We So Different? (For Kids).
Find out more about Kiku and Meena’s adventure to the Little Red Lighthouse.
Learn more about rent control in NYC at Tenants and Neighbors and CAAAV.
Read the Wikipedia entry on the Chipko movement. Does the photo look familiar?
Read a newspaper article similar to Mrs. Lau’s story here.
Read about fracking here. A destructive issue that the state of New York is struggling with, similar to mountaintop removal mining.