My Thoughts on the Book "Each Kindness" by Jacqueline Woodson

I chose to look further into a children's book that I have never read before. I am always looking for new books to add to my collection. Something I think is very hard to find in todays world, is a book that is written for children, that also teaches genuine lessons. Each Kindness, written by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E.B. Lewis, does exactly that. It teaches children about kindness and the affect that they have on others when they choose to either be kind or not. This book has won both the Coretta Scott King Honor Award and the Jane Addams Peace Award.

Something that really caught my attention was the illustrations. As I read this book, I kept thinking to myself, "Wow! I wonder when this book came out, because these illustrations remind me of some of the books that my mother had passed down to me." In those books, the style of the illustrations were different than a lot of my classroom books that I had gotten in more recent years. I was able to look into what year it was published and I was surprised to find out that it was actually in 2012. In reading this book, I came to realize that the form of illustrations isn't just something to be found in those much older books, but it is a certain artistic style and type of illustration. This was very interesting.

In the book, it is narrated by one of the children in the classroom. She talks about how a new girl, named Maya comes to their classroom. Maya tries to interact with the girl and play with her at recess, but the girl ignores her and makes fun of Maya at recess with her two other friends. Throughout the book, nobody makes an effort to engage with Maya or be friendly towards her. They make fun of her clothes, what she eats for lunch, and the toys that she brings to school. Then, there are a couple days when Maya doesn't come in to school. On one of those days, the teacher, Ms. Albert, did a lesson on kindness. She used a bowl of water and pebbles. Each child had to toss a pebble in and watch the water ripple and explain something kind that they had done recently. The girl could not think of anything. Later we find out that Maya and her family have moved away and that Maya would not be returning to their school. This made the little girl sad and she continued to think about the kindness that she should of shown to Maya when she was around.

As I said before, this story discusses and illustrates a very powerful message that our students need to be aware of. It is important for us to treat each other with kindness. Once you have read it, it is very easy to see why this book has won its award. I am so excited to add this to my collection of books to teach with.