Susie’s Book Nook - December ‘24 Children’s Book Review: “Let’s Fill This World with Kindness”
As I sit down today to write this new blog for the Book Nook, I write with renewed hope. Having just listened last night to influential leaders remind us, encourage us, and motivate us to rebuild a kinder and compassionate nation, I feel empowered to make a difference, no matter how small my difference may be. I am going to think of the “ripple effect” that I shared in last month’s Book Nook selection.
This month’s selection is an amazing collection of individuals who have made a difference sometimes small and sometimes big through their kindness to themselves and to others. The 23 “kindness stars” featured can remind us of the power of a single kind act. Though the reading level and some content is best for your middle schooler, as a parent you can pick and choose what stories would be great to tell even your youngest and inspire the first steps of making a difference.
Stories that would be great for your youngest could include from Kindness Towards Planet Earth, the story of Beachcombing for Plastic about Afroz Shah, from India. This story would fit right in with some earlier books I shared with you in Caring for Creation. A chapter, Kindness in Sports highlight good sportsmanship. Or a fun favorite of mine, Kindness in Face of Illness, the story of a very unconventional doctor, Dr. Peyo.
Dr. Peyo is actually a horse. In this story you can meet Hassen Bouchakour from France, who discovered his horse had an uncanny way of choosing people who were sick, sad, or lonely and needed cheering up. Learn how Dr. Peyo was trained to use his unique gift to comfort sick and elderly patients offering some of the best medicine, kindness and love.
For your older children this book offers examples in Kindness in the Face of Persecution, Prejudice, Disaster and many other subjects that circle our world. In each case three people have been selected to highlight their offering making our world kinder.
Learn about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Learn about Sinead Burke, from Ireland who as a disability activist spent her life campaigning for kindness. Learn about Gander, Newfoundland, Canada hosting 7,000 visitors when their airplanes were forced to land September 11, 2001. So many stories to be told to inspire you and your children to make a difference with kindness as the backbone.
The bookends of this thought-provoking collection of biographies begins with the Science of Kindness and ends with Kind Customs. I was led to consider the kind customs my family shares or what we could add to make a difference, as small as it may be, but a difference in the life of someone else we might encounter today.