Be Kind

Description:

Each act, big or small, can make a difference - or at least help a friend.

What does it mean to be kind? When Tanisha spills grape juice all over her new dress, her classmate contemplates how to make her feel better and what it means to be kind. From asking the new girl to play to standing up for someone being bullied, this moving and thoughtful story explores what a child can do to be kind.

With award-winning author Pat Zietlow Miller's gentle text and Jen Hill's irresistible art, Be Kind is an unforgettable story about how simple acts can change the world.

Review: [A] lovely exploration of empathy and thoughtfulness. * Publishers Weekly *
These days, it seems more important than ever for books to show young people how to act with thoughtfulness, civility, and kindness. * The New York Times Book Review *
The precisely worded, hopeful text offers ideas to ponder, while the artwork places them within kidfriendly contexts, such as a multiracial classroom and a neighborhood park. Nicely designed for drawing out children's ideas and opening a discussion on kindness, this picture book works well one-on-one or read aloud in a classroom, for the expressive pictures are still effective from a distance. A thoughtful picture book. * Booklist *
The book presents the powerful message that small acts of kindness matter, and that they can build with other acts of kindness to make a difference . . . A valuable addition on this topic [that] will promote conversation about what it means to be kind. * School Library Journal *
Here's a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at what it means to be kind and how kindness can spread.Throughout the author leaves space for readers/listeners to reflect on the narrator's words, which never once become preachy. Jen Hill's illustrations are enormously appealing capturing so well the feelings of Tanisha, the narrator, their classmates and the wider community. -- Jill Bennett * https://redreadinghub.blog/2020/07/22/be-kind/ *
This thoughtful story explores what children can do to be kind. * Red *
This is such a thoughtful and reflective book that children and adults can both learn a lot from * Stories for Little Ones *

Author Biography:

Pat Zietlow Miller is a children's book lover and one of the contributors at Picture Book Builders, a blog that highlights exemplary picture books and explains why they work. Her picture books include the award-winning Sophie's Squash, Sophie's Squash Go to School, Wherever You Go, Sharing the Bread, The Quickest Kid in Clarksville, and Be Kind. Pat lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, two daughters, and two pampered cats.

Jen Hill is the illustrator of several picture books, including Diana's White House Garden by Elisa Carbone, Spring for Sophie by Yael Werber, and Doing her Bit by Erin Hagar. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and her intern, Little Bee, who is very helpful for a cat.