Each Kindness (Jane Addams Award Book (Awards))

It's absolutely a brilliant book for children to learn about kindness and empathy. I brought this book over a recommendations and love it. The illustration by E.B. Lewis are exceptional. A simple message of, sometimes a second chance is never there! which is depicted clearly, where on all other heroic movies/children's book there is always a happy ending with second chances and No mistakes. But to be aware of the opportunities and the choices we make matter and once lost there is no turning back to correct it, is a huge takeaway from this book. Which is very true and is much needed.

Powerful, beautifully written ... leaves a tingle

Powerful, realistic, non-standard, non-happy-ending. The little girl postpones and misses her chance to be kind to her new class mate, because the new girl leaves the school one day, unexpectedly. Real feelings, with no sugar coating. As life is, oftentimes.

Each Kindness a Jane Addams Award Book by Jacqueline Woodson, also was named a 2013 Coretta Scott King Honor Book. This is truly an exceptional book. As I read it goose bumps shivered my arms. E.B. Lewis captured the deep emotion of the story in dreamy water color. The illustrations juxtapose both beauty and heartache because they reveal the children's lack of kindness, their unwelcoming cold shoulder and judgmental rejection of the new girl. One might think this replays the classic story line of the challenge that every "new" kid faces. But it is exceeds that think-how-the-shunned-kid-feels meme as the children rebuff her repeated efforts to break into their circle. Instead, it asks the reader to imagine being the child who chose unkindness, who joined the taunting, who derided and jeered. After the teacher uses a pebble-dropped-in-water to demonstrate how one act ripples in an ever-widening circle, Chloe undergoes a change of heart. She wants to include the outcast girl. She anticipates making amends, only to discover, it is too late. The book ends with the words, Chloe "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." The final illustration shows Chloe in a lush, lovely pond side spot. The beauty contrasts with Chloe's uncomfortable realization that it is too late to make amends for her ugly treatment of Maya. The reader feels the weight of that understanding. There is no and-she became-Maya's-best-friend easy answer. The message is clear. Sometimes, do overs are not possible. Some mistakes and lost opportunities cannot be corrected. Our choices matter. Powerful. True. Important. This book merits every award it won. (Memories of the classic story The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes illustrated by Louis Slobodkin popped to mind, because it deals with a similar story line. Each Kindness makes its point with eloquent brevity and contemporary, visually appealing illustrations.) Adoption-attuned (AQ) Lens: Our kids certainly understand, in a very personal way that choices have permanent consequences. This book can easily open conversations about the decisions made by their birth parents. (Not in terms of a cruelty done to them but with an intent to help kids understand that adoption was in no way their fault but rather is a decision made by adults for very adult reasons.)

I love the message in this story. The book was purchased second hand and is in excellent condition. I love that I owe a copy! Going to add it to my collection of beautiful children's books.

I lost my original vote. I just bought another one to read to my classes in seventh grade. It is a wonderful book and I never tired of it. It’s such a great lesson in many different grade levels and subject areas.