Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
During a snowy winter, a new girl came to class. Maya wore ragged clothes and a broken shoe that wouldn’t keep her foot dry in winter snow. The new girl was put next to Chloe, who refused to even look at her, moving far away in her seat and looking out the window. Day after day, Chloe never smiled or looked back. Maya kept trying, offering her new jacks she got for her birthday, but the girls all refused to play. Maya ended up playing alone. Then Maya was gone, her seat empty. That day, the class learned about kindness, about the way it ripples like a pebble dropped into water. The children were each given a small stone to drop in and tell the class about a kindness they had done. Chloe couldn’t think of any, her mind filled with the way she had treated Maya. As the days went by, Chloe hoped that Maya would return so that she could smile back. But then they heard that Maya had moved away. Chloe would not be able to return that smile.
Woodson does not pull back on her message here. She speaks directly to the sort of bullying that groups of girls are best at, ignoring and dismissing. Readers will immediately feel for Maya, who has done nothing at all to earn the scorn of the girls, except wear the wrong clothes. But Woodson also makes sure that we feel for Chloe too, using her as the narrator for the story. This works particularly well in the latter part of the book, where she is hopeful she will be able to right the wrong she has done.
Lewis’ art is realistic and quite simply amazing. He shows us through his images Maya’s side of the story, starting with her refusal to look at the class when introduced, her hopeful smile before Chloe turns away, and her isolation as the seasons change. After Maya leaves, Chloe is shown as the isolated one, alone on a blank white page, solitary in nature.
The power of this book is in the ending, where it does not wrap up happily with Maya returning and being embraced by the Chloe and her friends. Instead, it ends realistically with deep regrets and hope that Chloe will respond differently next time. This is a book sure to trigger discussions when shared with a class. I can see talking about bullying, kindness and differences.
Highly recommended, this is a powerful book that is worth sharing and discussing. Appropriate for ages 6-8.
Reviewed from copy received from Penguin.