ABOUT THIS BOOK:EACH KINDNESS
by Jacqueline Woodson
Many of Practickle’s selections are great reads for any child from the three-year-old to the independent reader. However, Each Kindness has a theme that is more likely to resonate with our older readers. This award-winning book was recommended to me by a wonderful kindergarten teacher, Becky McGillivray.
The book is a Coretta Scott King Award Honor book. This award is given to books written by African-American authors that effectively teach a message of peace, brotherhood, and nonviolent change. Each Kindness’s central message is about brotherhood.
It encourages children to include others who are different only because they are less fortunate. It is a story of remorse about a lost opportunity to show kindness to another person. We all look back on our own lives thinking about missed opportunities to do small acts of kindness. That universal experience is what leads to the Reading Comprehension Best Practice for this book: Making Connections/Activating Prior Knowledge. During the FIRST and THIRD READINGS, some questions will lead to discussions about when you or your child have had opportunities to do kindnesses for others.
During the FIRST READING you’ll talk about the title. What does kindness mean? Then, you’ll study the gentle watercolor illustrations. E. B. Lewis’s facial expressions are crucial to understanding how the two main characters are feeling.
Concentrating on the faces makes us feel as if we are witnesses to what is going on between Maya and Chloe’s clique of friends. Maya, the new girl, tries again and again to gain admittance to the group of girls in her class. Each time she is turned away by looks, comments, or silence.
In addition to the Coretta Scott King Award, Each Kindness has won additional awards, such as: School Library Journal’s Best Book of 2012 and 2013 Jane Adams Peace Award.
Introduction: Curious George, A TREASURY OF CURIOUS GEORGE