If We Were All the Same (Book)
Date: 1987
Author: Fred Rogers
Illustrator: Pat Sustendal
Publisher: Random House
Series: A Story From Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
ISBN: 03949877806
Purchase: Amazon (Paperback)
Cover and interior photographs by Walt Seng
Copyright © 1987 Family Communications, Inc.
Date: 1987 (Shoppers Drug Mart Edition)
Author: Fred Rogers
Illustrator: Pat Sustendal
Publisher: Random House
Series: A Story From Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
ISBN: 0394229428
Copyright © 1987 Family Communications, Inc.
Date: 1987
Author: Fred Rogers
Illustrator: Pat Sustendal
Publisher: Random House
Format: Cassette/Book
Series: Book & Cassette Library
ISBN: 0394892828
Purchase: Amazon (Audiobook)
Copyright © 1987 Family Communications, Inc.
Summary
If We Were All the Same opens with Lady Elaine flying in a spaceship and stumbling upon Planet Purple.
On Planet Purple everything is the same -- the cars, the houses, the people, and even their thoughts. All men are called Paul and all women are called Pauline while purple pandas exist in multitude and are all referred to simply as Purple Panda.
Upon Lady Elaine's departure from Planet Purple, the Purple inhabitants have an idea to visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Returning to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Lady Elaine dresses in and paints her Museum-Go-Round purple in order to make herself more like her new friends.
When Paul, Pauline, and Purple Panda arrive in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, they are surprised to find that Lady Elaine has taken on the Purple lifestyle as they are more excited by all of the colors and differences found in the Neighborhood. Learning that she is valued in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe for her eccentricity, Lady Elaine returns to life as usual. Meanwhile, Purple Panda decides to stay in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe as Paul and Pauline return to Planet Purple with new ideas of individuality.
A Note To Parents from Fred Rogers
Learning to recognize feelings and finding appropriate ways to express them are important steps in any child's growth. Pretending can be a big help to children as they work to understand more about feelings, but grownups sometimes need to clarify for children just where pretend stops and reality begins. That's on reason why, in both our storybooks and television programs, we keep the Neighborhood of Make-Believe separate from our "real" neighborhood. In Make-Believe, we pretend about certain things that couldn't happen in real life...and make it clear that that's what we're doing.
Each book in this series tells a story about feelings. Some of those feelings are happy ones and some aren't -- jealousy and anger, for instance. Strong feelings can be hard to talk about, but pretending about them can make it easier. We hope that these stories will help you talk about feeligns in your family. Though the stories are only make-believe, the feelings are real, and children need to know that having feelings of all kinds is a very real part of what makes us human beings.
Notes
This story is nearly identical to the one found in the Texas Instruments book Purple Planet. It is also featured on Tape 12 from the I Am, I Can, I Will series.