Approaching Diversity Differently ~ or ~ Why Stellaluna Would Win In A Boxing Match Against Sesame Street

At some point during my trip to Boston, for Thanksgiving, my sister and I came to the conclusion that the Sesame Street song “One of These Things Is Not Like the Other” could have approached the subject of inclusiveness much more delicately. An attempt to teach categorical skills to preschoolers, the jingle is borderline cruel to those that don’t fit in, we decided. We set about rewriting the words to fit a more enlightened frame of mind but we couldn’t think of a better way to express difference without alienation.

It was, in fact, my sister I had in mind, a week later, when I picked up a board book* version of Stellaluna. The story is, from what I could tell as a kid, a fairly rare commodity even in its original hardcover/soft pages format, never mind the board book edition.

The tale is a children’s one but not without an adult lesson, too, per usual. A small bat, Stellaluna (which aptly means starmoon) is separated from her mother midair, one night, and falls into a nest of baby birds. She is adopted by this new family and despite initial difficulty learns to sleep rightside up, eat nasty bugs, and sleep at night. This continues with a few hiccups (Stella can not land gracefully on a branch like her adoptive borthers and sisters) until the day when she is reunited with her nocturnal family. They reaffirm her affinity towards eating yummy fruit, flying at night and hanging, in their mind, the right way from a branch. Overjoyed, Stellaluna seeks out her avian peers and attempts to teach them her renewed skills. They fair about as well as Stellaluna had at bird antics. In the end, the birds and Stellaluna remain friends, each staying true to his or her own true calling while accepting that his or her buddies’ skills are different.

I find this to be a much more appropriate telling of “us and them” or rather a retelling of “us versus them”. Instead of pointing out the item that is different, embracing differences and expressing their uses and strengths. I had gone into that particular bookstore, known for its eclectic collection, looking for a book on feelings for little boys. I was rather pleased with my revised purchase.




*For those without children, let me explain. The importance of the board book is its durability. To be perfectly honest, I’d prefer my novels and philosophy tomes in tough cardboard form, too. Coffee stains would add character instead of disintegrating four chapters. Alas, only Stella Luna and Curious George have been so lucky thus far. Dorian Gray is still waiting his turn.