Book Review: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

General Information

Title: Each Kindness

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books

Date of Publication: 2012

Illustrator: E.B. Lewis

Lexile Level & Target Audience

Lexile: AD640L

Age Range: 5-8

This book is suitable for boys and girls alike; however, girls may more readily relate to the narrator, a female (who only refers to her other female friends in the book).

Brief Summary

When a new girl named Maya comes to Chloe's school, she asks Chloe and her group of girlfriends if they want to play. Chloe and her friends refuse because Maya seems weird and different, wearing hand-me-down clothes and bringing odd food for lunch; they continue to reject Maya until one day, Maya doesn't show up to school. In light of her teacher's lesson about kindness that day, Chloe feels remorse for her actions, and wishes she had another chance to do the right thing.

Evaluation: Pros & Cons

Pros:

1. Chloe learns a valuable lesson about kindness––the hard way. Sometimes we grow by doing the wrong thing––by learning our lesson the hard way––and this is exactly the case with Chloe. In the end, we can tell that Ms. Albert's [Chloe's teacher] lesson about kindness has changed Chloe in a meaningful (and even painful) way, because of her poor treatment of Maya; students will benefit from seeing Chloe's remorse and realization regarding the situation, helping them to make right decisions in the future.

2. The book doesn't end in a "happily ever after." This goes along with the above statement; as readers, we feel Chloe's pain and regret for her actions at the end of the book. This is important because it drives home the point that we don't always get "second chances" to be kind to someone, and, therefore, we should choose to be kind in every situation.

3. The setting is authentic and relatable. Woodson does a beautiful job of conveying this situation; the scenes within the classroom and at recess, along with the dynamics of children wanting to be "cool," are believable and realistic; students will easily be able to put themselves in Chloe's shoes, remembering times when they've been unkind to their classmates or neighbors for some of these very same reasons.

Cons:

1. At times, the speaking language feels too "grown-up." For the most part, Woodson does a wonderful job with crafting scene, language, and dialogue. At certain points, however, the narration feels slightly too "grown-up" for Chloe's voice; that is, the vocabulary feels slightly too advanced and eloquent at times––though, in my opinion, this doesn't take away too much from the overall quality of the book.

[No other real "cons" to this one. It's a winner.]

Literary Elements

Dialogue: Woodson's use of vivid dialogue really makes this story come to life. From the taunting of Chloe's classmates ("Chloe's got a new friend / Chloe's got a new friend") to Ms. Albert's statement about kindness ("Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world"), the dialogue is rich with imagery and character.

Internal Conflict: As mentioned above, Chloe's internal conflict in this story––specifically, her struggle with regret––is incredibly useful in teaching students about the effects that kindness (and the lack thereof) has on us and the people around us.

Figurative Language: Woodson uses imagery-filled figurative language to convey meaning in this text. In one particular scene, after Chloe finds out that Maya has moved away, she says: ". . . my throat filled with all the things I wished I would have said to Maya."

Illustrations

Lewis has done a fantastic job illustrating the emotion and setting of this story. Scenes from the classroom and recess periods are perfectly outlined, and Chloe's feelings are portrayed with such depth. One particular illustration stood out to me, in which the students are all "crowding around" the bowl of water that Ms. Albert uses to explain the ripples from a pebble (i.e. the effects of just one act of kindness).

Mini-lesson Idea(s)

Something significant Woodson does in this text––and something that is very impacting––is her choice to convey a lesson through the remorse of having not done the right thing. Students could take a similar approach by conveying a lesson or theme using this technique. The class could brainstorm as a whole about topics already discussed in class previously, or you could provide students with a list of possible "life lessons." Alternatively, students could choose to write about a mistake they've made in their own lives that ultimately taught them an important lesson––the hard way.

- Aubrey