Book Review- Be Kind
By Pat Zietlow Miller
Illustrated by Jen Hill
What does it mean to be kind? This book presents actionable insights for little kids on being kind. Maybe it's making cookies for someone who lives alone, listening to someone’s stories over and over, maybe it's making an effort to partner with the new girl or praising someone’s new boots.
Acts of kindness have a snowball effect where a small little kindness can go on to join other kindnesses and become rather big making a huge impact.
Tanisha has spilled grape juice over her new dress. The entire class ridicules her, but the unnamed narrator ponders on how she can make Tanisha feel better. Can she draw her a picture, give her a napkin, give her a sweatshirt?
There is a lot of subtle inter-racial diversity, none of which is overtly talked about, and it is there quietly and in a non-divisive way.
How do we teach kids to be kind? We realize that they pick up on the nuances from our behavior and it's a conscious effort to emulate the values in our daily lives that we want them to pick. This book gives us concrete ideas and one of the most important ones is simply to use ‘people’s names’ when addressing them. I’m guilty of this a lot, coz i just can't remember names and it was a very conscious effort to undo the habit.
A very important book on the cascading effects of kindness and the impact it can have. We loved the illustrations and they are simply gold. The yarn being knit into a jumper for a friend who has none ( a side plot) was so beautiful.
Tanisha sadly has no say in this whole thing and her POV is lost, but we loved the fact that she does go on to appreciate the purple flower painting.
Overall a must have book for kids aged 3.5+yrs
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