Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani

Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani is an epistolary novel for young readers, a story of two unlikely pen pals who are, perhaps, more similar than one might initially expect. River Justice is a boy from Eastern Kentucky, the son of a coal miner. Meena Joshi is a girl from New York City, though she was born in India. The two correspondents learn a lot about, and from, each other over the course of a year.

This book is obviously of didactic intent, though the story does not come across as overly didactic. Set in 2008, there is a lot of discussion of the politics of the day (specifically, the presidential election). I enjoyed reading this book, but I think it will have limited appeal to kids. I can definitely see it being used in a classroom setting, though.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)