Each Kindness


Title- Each Kindness
Author/Retold- Jacqueline Woodson 
Illustrator- E.B. Lewis
Genre- multicultural book
Grade level- 3rd- 5th grade
Awards- Corretta Scott King and the Jane Adam’s Peace Award

The story begins on a cold, snowy day. Inside a classroom, the principal introduces a new student named maya. Our main character, Chloe, saw that her clothes and shoes were tattered. The teacher put maya by Chloe, and maya tried smiling at her but all Chloe did was turn away every time she did. A lunch time, Maya came over to Chloe and her friend group and asked if she wanted to play jacks with her and the group said no, so maya played by herself. In class maya told Chloe, guess who is the Jacks Champion of the World is? Andrew, the boy behind Chloe, said guess you have a new friend and Chloe quickly said she’s not my friend! Everyday they whispered about maya and how she was different because of the food she ate and the ways she dressed. She would still ask if anyone wanted to play and everyone said no. One days she came in with a dress and nice shoes, but hey look like they were once worn by someone before. One of Chloe’s friends gave her the nick name “Never New” and the whole group laughed. Maya just got a jump rope and started jumping all over the yard by herself. Maya wasn’t there the next day and the teacher talked about kindness. She put a bowl of water on the table and she showed what happened when she dropped the rock in the bowl. It started to make ripples. She said the rock is the action of kindness and the ripples are the effects of that kindness into the world. The teacher asked everyone to share a thing of kindness and drop a rock into the bowl. When it got to Chloe, she couldn’t think of any and passed her rock on tot he next person. The next couple of weeks, Chloe waited for maya to come back to school, but she never did. The teacher said that Maya’s family moved schools. Chloe walked to the river after school and threw stones into the river and would say all the things she would have said that were kind. She saw the ripples of the water and the chances of being kind to maya forever gone. 

This is an amazing story about kindness and how bullying affects students. This a great representation of what could happen and the effects of bullying on students. This book can be read by students from third through fifth grade, but this story can be used from any classroom from kindergarten all the way to eight grade. I think it’s important to show that bullying is wrong at any age and this book is a great catalyst for that.


 

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