Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Illustrator: E.B. Lewis

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Awards: Coretta Scott King Honor (2013), ALA Notable Children's Book (2013), Charlotte Zolotow Award (2013), Wyoming Buckaroo Nominee (2013), IRA Notable Book for a Global Society (2013), NCTE/CLA Notable Children's Book in the English Language Arts (2013), AISLE Read-Aloud Books Too Good To Miss (2013), IRA Teachers' Choices Reading List (2013), Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children and Teens (2013), ISLMA Monarch Award Nominee (2015), Vermont Red Clover Award Nominee (2014), CCBC Choices (2013), Bank Street CBC Best Children's Book of the Year (2013), Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award Nominee (2014), West Virginia Children's Choice Book Award Nominee (2014), Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award Nominee (2015), Bill Martin, Jr. Picture Book Award (2014), Parents' Choice Book Award (2012)

Grade(s): K-4th

Summary: Each Kindness is a story about a girl named Chloe who had gotten a new student in her class named Maya. Chloe instantly noticed that Maya did not look like other students. Her clothes were old and torn and her shoes looked very worn out. Chloe made it a point to make Maya an outcast even though Maya just wanted to make friends. One day, the teacher did an experiment where she took a bowl of water and a pebble. She demonstrated that when she dropped the pebble into the water, it would ripple out from the center. She explained that the pebble represents something kind someone has done or said to someone else and the ripples represent how far that kindness goes. The teacher handed out pebbles and had each student say something kind they did and then drop it into the bowl of water. However, when it was Chloe's turn, she couldn't think of anything she had done that was kind. This embarrassed her. The next day, Maya had not returned to school. Chloe was actually sad because she had told herself that she was going to start being kind to Maya because she had felt so guilty. Unfortunately, Maya was never going to return to that school because her family had moved away. Chloe was so upset by this, she walked to the pond and thought of all of the kind things she would have said to Maya has she dropped in pebbles. The book ends with, "I watched the water ripple as the sun set through the maples and the chance of a kindness with Maya became more and more forever gone."

My Thoughts: This book has such a strong message that we can all teach our children and students. I feel that this book touched me deeply as it portrays a message of the importance of being kind to one another. This book also has a twist where Chloe is an African American girl while Maya is white. It is very rare to find this type of situation portrayed as it was in this book and I feel that, in itself, teaches a viable lesson that bullying goes beyond stereotypes. I absolutely loved this book and it will definitely be one that I continue to read every year to my class. I will even use the water and pebble experiment with my students as I feel it holds so much value in teaching the importance of kindness.