In our world today, there has been a growing movement to encourage all ages to choose kindness. Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E.B. Lewis is a picture book that reminds children and adults about the importance of treating others with kindness and second chances within our world.

Each Kindness begins in the middle of winter when the main character, Chloe, has a new student, Maya, in her class. Maya is shy with old, ragged clothes and spring shoes that have a broken strap. She sits in the seat right next to Chloe and smiles at her. Instead of smiling back, Chloe moves a little further away and turns to the window to stare at the snow. And every day after that, Chloe looks away and never smiles back. As the school year continues, Chloe and her two best friends stick together and never include Maya; no matter how many times she asks to play with them. Throughout the story, Chloe and her friends talk and laugh about Maya’s clothes and lunches. Then one day in class when Maya is absent from school Chloe learns how kindness, even the smallest acts, spreads out and makes the world a little better. Ultimately from this, Chloe gains awareness of her unkindness to Maya. Chloe reflects on how she will show kindness to Maya, which will be left unstated for all readers to discover on their own!

Jacqueline Woods writes the story so that all readers, young or old, can relate to and understand kindness. Woods depicts a story that children of all ages can relate to based on their experiences. Because of this children who read this story are able to identify Chloe’s unkind acts sooner than the main character. Children are guided to an in-depth knowledge of kind and unkind acts as the story develops.

Interior illustration by E. B. Lewis.

E.B. Lewis’s illustrations help emphasize the unkindness by depicting the most important events and the characters’ emotions within the story. The illustrations are soft and gentle to help calm the heavy content in the writing. However, even with the soft and gentle lines, Lewis incorporates critical features such as facial expressions and body language which further enhance the events taking place.

As the story develops, children learn the power of kindness and how it works in our world. Kindness is compared to a stone, no matter how big or small, being dropped in water and it ripples outward. The analogy is powerful and easy to understand for an abstract concept like kindness. By the end of the story, Woods delivers the true heart of the story which gives a genuine and honest reality of second chances.

Each Kindness conveys a powerful message about kindness that is not like many other books I’ve read. Jacqueline Woods explains that she wrote this book because everyone has been unkind and has been treated unkindly. She also added that people often believe that with kindness there will be second chances. Yet, sometimes there won’t. Each Kindness delivers a true honesty about kind acts people can choose, as well as the lesson people might have to learn to live with from being unkind.

Each Kindness has been recognized as a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, 2013 Jane Addams Peace Award, 2013 Charlotte Zolotow Award and Best Book of 2012 – School Library Journal.