Each Kindness

Woodson, Jacqueline. Each Kindness. Illustrated by E.B. Lewis. Penguin Random House, 2012. 32 pages.

Each Kindness written by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E.B. Lewis portrays the story of the harsh reality between a bully and the bullied. Maya is a young girl who moves to a new school and is looking forward to making new friends; however, Chloe will not let anyone be friends with Maya. Chloe says that Maya is weird because she has old toys and wears hand-me-downs for clothes. One day Maya is not at school, and the teacher uses this day to have the class to say one kind thing that they have done, and then drop a stone into a bowl and watch the ripples spread.

That is what kindness does, said Ms. Albert, each little thing we do goes out like a ripple into the world.

Chloe could not think of one nice that she had done. Maya never returns back to school, and Chloe never gets the chance to show her kindness to Maya.

E.B. Lewis paints his illustrations using multi-color water colors. The water colors give the novel a blurrier look. This book has to do with ethical philosophy because it teaches children to question what is right and what is wrong. After reading this book children should feel sad, and they should realize that bullying is wrong. The most interesting feature about this book is it’s ending. There is not a happy ending. Chloe is left feeling horrible about her actions, and she never gets the opportunity to change them. The moral of this book is that sometimes it is too late to forgive someone, and one should never say something that they are going to regret later in life.