Each Kindness

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Each Kindness

On a quiet, cold, snowy and muted winter morning the classroom door opens and the principal enters holding the hand of Maya, the new girl. Her "coat was open and the clothes beneath it looked old and ragged. Her shoes were spring shoes, not meant for the snow. A strap on one of them had broken." Maya is looking down. She can't face being that new girl. But when she sits down in the empty seat, she turns and smiles at the girl across the aisle. Maya will offer her friendship in many small ways as the days go by. But no one will reach back.

Then, the morning comes when Maya's seat is empty. It just so happens that Ms. Albert, the teacher, has chosen kindness as the topic for the day. Heavy with tenderness and sorrow, kindness takes center stage. Each one of us stands alone capable of making all the difference in someone's world with our ability to be kind. We create ripples as we walk in the world. Every step we take, every direction we choose, every gesture or failure to reach out, defines and constructs the world we live in.

This is a story about the girl who did not reach out. Now that the desk is empty and now that her teacher has opened her mind and her heart to the power of kindness and the power of one person, well... now how does she feel? Now, what does she see? What will she do the next time she has that magical, astonishing opportunity to be the one who turns with a smile and welcomes with kindness?

I just think this duo of Woodson and Lewis packs a wallop because they are amazingly sensitive, intuitive human beings who have incredible abilities to write and draw the intangible things in our world...in our children's world... and they express them with depth and breadth of feeling that others cannot aspire to. So, I'm finally done blowing my nose and thought I'd send this right out to you all while I was still in the trance of this keen, perceptive, penetrating story.

32 pages                      978-0399246524            Ages 6-10

Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com

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Each kindness makes the world a little better

This unforgettable book is written and illustrated by the award-winning team that created The Other Side and the Caldecott Honor winner Coming On Home Soon. With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they've put it down.

Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya.--from the publisher

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Lesson Plan suggestion:

Here's a link to another lesson idea based on the wordless picture book "I Walk With Vanessa" https://librarylessonswithbooks.com/2018/07/29/i-walk-with-vanessa-a-story-about-a-simple-of-kindness-by-kerascoet/<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2flibrarylessonswithbooks.com%2f2018%2f07%2f29%2fi-walk-with-vanessa-a-story-about-a-simple-of-kindness-by-kerascoet%2f&c=E,1,JBqhpbXYhhSx0Ch2gv2o2ye30l_ampuwZ9RuiN-W5qDn3dVi-NAxpi-_hNxSWgyJ0tK9TgQ-fRUaPxAsQGvzeYwWy2JS9j2fTPnm_5jdsu1J-2cCOAE,&typo=1>

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3.0(1)
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(Updated: May 13, 2013)
Rating
 
3.0
This book was just checked out for the second time by the same fourth grade student who told me, "This is the best book! I think everyone should read it." It is one of the few stories about bullying that does not end well, and for that reason, it has the power to make the reader truly stop and think. "Are my actions or inactions causing someone pain? Am I excluding someone, and if so, how can I change?"
Highly recommended. This book could lead to some good classroom discussions.
RI
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