Each Kindness
by Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrated by E. B. Lewis
Published by Putnam, 2012
32 pages
ISBN: 978-0-399-24652-4
Ages 5-9
When the new girl Maya first comes to school, “Her coat was open and the clothes beneath it looked old and ragged.” Chloe ignores Maya’s smile that first day and every day afterward. And at recess, Chloe and her best friends, Kendra and Sophie, reject Maya’s attempts to play with them or impress them. Kendra calls Maya “Never New,” because “everything she has came from a secondhand store.” Maya isn’t at school the day their teacher brings a bowl of water and a stone to class. She drops in the stone and tells the students that kindness is like the ripples of water: “Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world.” Chloe thinks about Maya, and is determined to smile back the next time she sees her. But day after day Maya doesn’t come back, and then the teacher announces Maya has moved away. Jacqueline Woodson’s moving story is anything but predictable as a young African American girl is left feeling regret for kindnesses undone, but also is surely changed. The writing pulses with feeling in Woodson’s quietly powerful narrative set against E. B. Lewis’s light-filled illustrations.
The Genre of this short story is Narrative..
Motivational Activities
- I would have the children write 2 or 3 sentences telling me how it feels to be treated badly because of what you wear to school.
- Discussion Questions:
- How was Maya different from her peers?
- Where did Maya come from? Why did Kendra call Maya "Never New"?
- How would you react if someone made fun of you because you were poor? What would you say to him?
- Personal Comment:
- I really enjoyed reading this book because it shows how words can hurt. The children will see that everyone can hurt people with what they say. It also shows that they can make people feel really good to by being kind. Each child has the power to say kind things and it really makes a big difference when they do.
2. The book is good for children who are not exposed to many other cultures.
- About Jacqueline Woodson:
- Jacqueline Woodson (born February 12, 1963) is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known forMiracle's Boys, which won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2001, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac & D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way.
- For her lifetime contribution as a children's writer, Woodson won the Margaret Edwards Award in 2005[1] and she was the U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2014.[2][3][4] IBBY named her one of six Andersen Award finalists on March 17, 2014.[5] She won the National Book Award in 2014 in the category of "Young People's Literature" for Brown Girl Dreaming.
- Other books by Alma Flor Ada.
- Brown Girl Dreaming
- Feathers
References
Woodson, J., & Lewis, E. B. (2012). Each kindness. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books
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