WALK With Me Through Powerful Picture Books

 Two new picture books share several things. Each includes WALK in the title. Each addresses topics or issues that could be (actually ARE) stressful and wrapped in grief, yet each provides a deep experience with the positivity and potential of our lives.

AND THEY WALK ON  is written by Kevin Maillard and illustrated by Rafael López. 

ROARING BROOK PRESS, 2025

Luminous illustrations offer hints (and some subtle indicators of the ethnic origins), providing a sunset endpaper spread with vibrant tones and a winding trail, then echoing the same landscape in the closing endpapers, viewing it at sunset. That unless cycle of our planet mirrors the sense that we habitants also have an endless quality. 

The text is simple and lyrical, but capture the voice of the narrator, who only occasionally clarifies that with some "I" phrasing. This gives the text a sense of the child's distance from his experiences in the early pages. Someone has "walked on" , someone he cares for deeply, but what does that mean? 

Will he see them again? Where have they gone? their room seems unchanged, and the kitchen, the "hearth" of their home still beckons. That kitchen and the family's activity there (making grape dumplings) brings the missing someone back into existence, "like a cauldron of memory".

The conclusion pages offer even more of the connection and identity of this family and its members, those present and others walking on.  The luscious language reveals shifting mood, from concern to acceptance, celebrating the cultural sense that people we love never leave us, we walk on through our lives alongside them. 

Back matter includes helpful notes from both author and illustrator, as well as receive for those grape dumplings. This certainly fits well in collections about dealing with grief, but it seems to me it has potential for helping young readers recognize the concept of Death before they even experience it. Everything about it makes me want to read it again and again.

A second book that captures big concepts through words and text that wrap readers in care and conviction is THE WALK, 

ABROMS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
2023

written by award-winning creators, among my favorites. Winsome Bingham wrote the compelling and upbeat text while E. B. Lewis sets the scenes with his recognizable style:  familiar faces that might often be overlooked, shifting perspectives to assure that each person and detail merits our attention, rendered in tones that offer both depth and glow. In this case the endpapers are solid color- a golden splash that assures good things are ahead. 

The story opens with a girl and her granny preparing for a walk. Along the way they encounter and encourage folks from their neighborhood, as the girl asks questions and granny offers bits of personal and social history in simple snippets and hints. "The walk" they are taking is longer now that it once was, but no political commentary indicates why that is, or confronts readers directly with debates about access to their goal. Granny's nods to those who came before, to those who managed past struggles and walks, is subtle but certain and sincere. 

The language is direct and accessible, incorporating onomatopoetic phrases and capturing the rhythm of the neighborhood with "just right" word and illustration choices. 

"A sea of faces swimming 

upstream like a school of fish."

while the spread casts the walkers on sharp white backgrounds  as their  shadows double their numbers. 

Then the girl's big question catches in my throat as I read aloud. They arrive at their destination, and she asks, "Why do people vote?"

Granny answers firmly, "For HOPE, baby. For HOPE!" This captures the story in a nutshell, lifting it beyond a stroll or civic duty and making it personal. "Voting lets grown folks speak up."

That's just what the girls Mama had taught her to do. 

AFRO-INDIGENOUS: Black History In Need of Representation

HEARTDRUM, 2025

I can imagine no better creators to share the stories and images of contemporary youth whose family tree is rooted in both Black-and-Indigenous ancestors than the team behind STRONGER THAN. The shared voices of poet-extraordinaire NIKKI GRIMES and Choctaw member-storyteller STACY WELLS provide a genuine family account of brothers with such heritage. As notes from both authors and further material in back matter indicate, there are few if any other stories in picture books that explore a heritage  so often reported in Black families, even when tribal or clan connections are not traceable. Sadly, Native and Black individuals (and communities) share the history of oppression and societal exclusion (and much worse), which sometimes led to friendships, marriages, and blended  communities of mutual support.

In this story, the brothers are descendants of survivors of the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa Race Massacre. Through a family-storytelling style, the brothers AND readers learn about both periods and persecutions in America history. They also learn of the strength of their family, recognizing their courage to continue despite tragedy, and, as a result, gaining in confidence and identity. 

Illustrations by E. B. Lewis not only imbue the current and historic story members with individuality and personality. The powerful images are bathed in masterful shifts of color and tone, shadow and light, conveying the interiority of the boys and their family as if music is swelling, soothing, or pounding in the background. The moods and tones, their shifts and transitions, make this account feel like an impactful film. 

This storytelling is launched by the recurring nightmares for one brother, a pattern that has him dreading bedtime. Most stories about nightmares, monsters under the bed, and things that go bump ih the night are aimed at younger audiences with many employing an amusing or comical approach to ease anxiety. This, by contrast, is a story aimed at school age readers and above, with depth and detail that connect across subject areas in integrated curricular studies.

We need contemporary stories of strong Black boys as well as Native People whose heritage stories were rarely shared and even now are facing attempts at erasure. The publisher, HEARTDRUM, is actively working to bring these satires to the shelves, including authenticity and language that readers of any background will welcome and learn from within the context of quality literature. I hope you'll take time to read and consider this new, award-winning picture book, then share it widely. 

EVERYWHERE BEAUTY IS HARLEM: A Visual Tribute to Photographer Roy DeCarava

Calkins Creek, 2023
Imprint of ASTRA BOOKS

I have several friends whose full, professional lives have nevertheless led them to become remarkable photographers, unrelated to their main careers. Their specialties range from capturing planned events, to patient wildlife photos, to those who combine candid and intentional photo captures with observed/gathered artifacts to form creative collages with emotional depth. I admire and appreciate the "eye" and skills of each of these. The same is true for this photographer I never met.

EVERYWHERE BEAUTY IS HARLEM: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava is the award-winning recent picture book profile of a twentieth century master of the camera, Roy DeCavara, who also completed a full day's employment of one sort or another. Working day jobs offered other times and opportunities to drop a roll of film in his camera, then follow his eye and heart, capturing the beauty of everyday life in his home, Harlem. The text relies on an artful blend of minimal but informative text by author Gary Golio, blended with inspiring excerpts from DeCavara's writings and interviews. Each quotation is sourced in back matter, but they are so seamlessly blended as to lend a sense of co-authoring this gloriously illustrated biographic homage to a brilliant artist. DeCavara's works revealed not just his skill with the techniques of using black and white film to isolate candid images, but also his talented eye for the moment, the magic, of life. He saw what anyone could, but he showed us what we were missing.The opening text is one of those DeCavara quotations that sets the tone, literally, with this:

"It doesn't have to be pretty to be true,

but if it's true it's beautiful.

Truth is beautiful."

The DeCavara  body of work is primarily black and white, emphasizing light and shadow, rarely using a flash. His remarkable images were often primarily dark with the brilliance of situational, minimal light finding its/his target. His approach elevates the magic, the beauty of a subject to impressive heights. Work by gifted and multi-awarded "artistrator" E. B. Lewis  is also often dense and dark in background with intentional and stunning lighting lending luminous attention to the heart of each scene. In this case his approach enlivens iconic Harlem locations and frames experiences as if to animate those original moments from the photographs for which the Harlem photographer is best known.

In times when film is unnecessary and rarely used, when cameras of excellent quality are in the palms mod so many hands, His concluding quotation, from back pages, urges us to find what we love in every day life and celebrate it in the moment:

"Unexpected treasures are waiting to be seen,

if you just take the time to look."

Seeking Freedom: Do NOT Miss Reading This Important Nonfiction Account

 When it comes to CIVIL WAR names and heroes, do you know this one… GEORGE SCOTT? 

Astra Books for Young Readers
Calkins Creek, 2022

I’m guessing you don’t.  I certainly didn’t. 

What’s more, the story surrounding Scott's contributions to ending slavery were unknown to me, and to many others. 

SEEKING FREEDOM: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America is written by Selena Castrovilla and illustrated by the incomparable artist E. B. Lewis. The rich details, character, and intensity of the text are enhanced and expanded by those same qualities in the illustrations. Every dramatic element is made more so by such detail, from the lichen on the barks of trees to the opening note about when and why certain word choices were made, to revelations of personality and character, especially in George Scott and the other central player, little-known hero, Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler, commander of Fortress Monroe in Virginia. I can't begin to imagine the extent of research that preceded the writing and illustrating of this remarkable picture book. 

I won’t include spoilers in these comments, which limits the scope of what I can share. 

This much, though, is essential to understand. GEORGE SCOTT was, in the language of the time,  a “runaway slave” (actually a freedom-seeking enslaved man). He had spent two years in a wild-wooded area not far from the fort, surviving by intelligence, cunning, and sheer determination as states seceded and war with the North began. His encounter with General Butler takes place in the early pages of this book when he risked exposure and return to his “master” by entering the fort to offer to work in support of the North. 

Both men took remarkable risks in pursuing this course of resistance to the established law that said enslaved people were the property of their owners and were required to be returned to them. Butler chose to defy this process by calling freedom-seeking refugees from slavery “contraband”, using that legal “property” label to justify retaining them as living spoils of wartime, which could supersede the Fugitive Slave Act. He was depriving the rebels of a valuable war-making resource.

Could that tactic actually work? Would it destroy Butler’s career, returning the many desperate freedom-seekers to enslavement? Or would it challenge the institution of slavery and begin a process to settle that question once and for all? 

The historic account that provides answers to those questions, and more, is revealed with dramatic art and suspenseful storytelling. Scenes involve President Lincoln, Congressional action, spying, a near-death escape, as well as post-war developments. Be sure to read the impressive back matter that further explores the post-war lives of these two heroic men, as well as the political decisions affecting both of their lives, and more. Sources for research and quotations are provided with acknowledgements of the historic sites and their curators, without whose involvement this book could not have been completed.

The most essential questions and causes of our deadly CIVIL WAR are launched and confronted within these pages and I am still shaking my head in wonder that I had not heard this account before. I believe you will do the same. After you read it, and I urge you to do so, soon, I feel certain you will be recommending it far and wide, across many ages and interests. 

And I doubt you'll ever forget George Scott and his role in ending slavery in America.

 

Thank You, John Lewis. May Your Light Shine On

Congressman John Lewis

Until his passing on the day I write this, the last surviving speaker from the 1963 August MARCH on WASHINGTON was then very young John Lewis. He eventually became Congressman John Lewis, continuing to speak out and lead across generations. 
During that long career he worked tirelessly to secure justice, to eliminate racism, and to ensure equity and freedom for all.
His individual accomplishments are too long to list but can be examined in these links:

Brief biography
A UNIFYING FORCE in CONGRESS (The Atlantic)
JOHN LEWIS Profile: ACLU

In recent books for young readers, Lewis partnered with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell at Top Shelf Productions to produce the multiple award winning series, MARCH, a graphic history of the past and recent present. In these astonishingly accurate and appealing graphic books can be found a story within a story, tracing Lewis's personal history overlaid on the template of our nation's changes. 
The first book spans critical points at which Lewis stood on that Lincoln Memorial stage fifty years ago to speak, and into the near-present when he sat in the audience in 2009 as a congressman,  witnessing the inauguration of Barach Obama. There he was within sight of that original gathering. 
At this writing I can simply repeat and endorse the many praises this work has garnered, included rave reviews, as this one in School Library Journal. and multiple well-deserved awards. 
The death of Lewis today was the sudden but predictable course of a recent Stage Four pancreatic cancer diagnosis, which he faced with the brilliance and courage that has marked his character throughout life. 

MARCH, BOOK ONE, was widely acknowledged as a groundbreaking effort to ignite young readers with the powerful sense of urgency of those Civil Rights Years. It was so widely acclaimed and used that it was soon followed by MARCH, BOOK TWO, which was also widely awarded and welcomed in schools, libraries, and individual lives. Among its many accolades are these:
New York Times Bestseller
One of YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens
2016 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work - Winner
2016 Harvey Award for Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation - Winner
2016 Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album Original - Winner
2016 Street Literature Book Award Medal for Best Graphic Novel - Winner
2016 Denver Independent Comic & Art Expo Award for Best Work - Mid/Large Press - Winner

The concluding volume, MARCH, BOOK THREE, released in 2016 to conclude the dramatic and detailed story of Lewis and other dedicated Civil Rights leaders continuing the struggle throughout succeeding years. The trilogy captures the compelling voice of Lewis with the immediacy and inspiring tone that he sustained until his last breath.
Each book in this unequaled and essential series has garnered attention and I'm confident that they will continue to do so:
Winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's Literature
#1 New York Times Bestseller
2017 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner
2017 Michael L. Printz Award Winner
2017 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Winner
2017 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction - Winner
2017 Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children's Literature - Winner
2017 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award Winner
2017 LA Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature - Finalist

Nancy Paulson books, 2016

I dedicate this blog to picture books, but I've occasionally used the platform to call attention to the importance of graphic novels and nonfiction content in graphic format. These are perfect examples of the power of combining images and voice to convey stories with an impact that neither media alone would achieve. 
Even so, the audience for these is not the very young. That doesn't mean that the life of Lewis is not accessible and compelling, even for the youngest. Please also read PREACHING TO THE CHICKENS: The Story of Young John Lewis to learn more about the earliest years of his lifelong journey to lead us to a better world. His story is inspiring and more timely now than ever.
Lewis often referenced his early years in speeches, and it is a blessing to us all that his story was captured so beautifully in the text of Jabari Asim and the incomparably rich images of E. B. Lewis. 

Apart from the absolutely stunning illustrations of E. B. Lewis (no relation to the subject), this book is an invaluable early-childhood story of an American figure whose contribution to human rights is immeasurable. This book opens his life-story to even the youngest readers and all readers seeking insight to the origins of Lewis's commitment to causes greater than himself. He continues to teach us this through his lifetime examples and his words and accomplishments. 

Anchoring this in COVID 19 Time and #BLackLivesMatter movement:
This is simply a note in confirmation of some facts that Lewis lived and confronted throughout his life: 
Struggle never ends.
Truth is not found in the statements of the media or the perceived reality that is delivered by those with political agenda and investment in the status quo.
We are stronger when we stand up and speak up together, but sometimes we must have the courage to be the only voice among our circle of contacts. 
Whether we take on that challenge or not is a question of personal integrity.
This applies to deciding to wear a mask, return kids to schools, or walk (or sit) in protest.
Struggle never ends.
Be inspired by Lewis to examine your own moral compass and act on it.

LIZZIE Demands a Seat: And Demands to be Read

January brings me to the eighth anniversary of launching this blog about picture books. When I wrote my first post I had no idea I would continue this long or that it would lead me to so many other activities involving the picture book format I love and respect deeply . 
Now, I've moved far beyond featuring my own favorite or thematic titles, although that still happens. Since I've received more and more requests to review current releases, I included a page to describe my selection guides for choosing which titles to feature. I welcome such requests, but ask authors and publishers to check this page first.

Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills Press. January, 2020

When a copy of LIZZIE DEMANDS A SEAT: Elizabeth Jennings Fights for Streetcar Rights  found its way to my inbox, there was no question that I would want to share it here. I know that the author, BETH ANDERSON, incorporates deep and detailed research that provides insights into her subjects' stories, intentions, and habits. Her historic narratives read with the urgency and relevance of contemporary events, inviting reflection and investigation into people and choices that shaped our current lives.
The illustrator for this title, E. B. LEWIS, was an equal guarantee that I would love this book. He calls himself an "artistrator" for good reason. Any single page or spread from any of his picture books can stand alone as admirable art. But in the context of each story, his images also enrich and engage readers with research-inspired details and artfully interpreted emotions in gesture, facial expressions, colors, and luminous focus.
For those reasons alone, I would have welcomed reading this advance copy (received from publisher as PDF). The subject matter added to my enthusiasm. I'm always longing to read more about hidden or underreported history, especially stories that take a step away from the most  common and popular subjects.That's especially true of stories involving civil rights and racism. 
All too often, the stories on these subjects that spring to mind involve Martin Luther King, Jr, Rosa Parks, or Ruby Bridges. They are typically placed in Southern states and explore widely publicized events. 
But each of the most momentous changes in our nation's laws and attitudes was preceded by many individual efforts, often with much less public attention or support.
I wrote about one such example in a prior post, HERE. 

THE FIRST STEP: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial. Written by Susan E. Goodman and illustrated by E. B. Lewis, the story of equal-education-seeking young Sarah Roberts couldn't be in better hands.

Did you notice that E. B. Lewis illustrated this picture book, too? Goodman makes the point in the back matter of that historic account that the equal rights case described in the story LOST when it reached the court. Even so, it was a first step of many that led to the eventual BROWN vs BOARD OF EDUCATION ruling. In addition, it revealed discrimination and inequality in lives in the northern states, not only in former slave states. A line Goodman uses midway through the story is this:

"Every big change has to start somewhere". 

LIZZIE DEMANDS A SEAT also demands to be read.

As a twenty-four-year-old free Black woman in New York City in 1854, Lizzie Jennings was not good at waiting- for anything. The illustrations reveal what back matter later articulates: Lizzie was educated, came from a well-to-do family of abolitionist activists, and lived a full life with many community responsibilities. In the opening scene, she relied on the horse-drawn streetcar to reach her church in time to play the organ, tapping her heels impatiently until it appears.

The "tradition" in NewYork City was that Black people could ride the public streetcars if no White people on board objected. If they did, then dirty, unreliable streetcars would eventually come by, displaying a sign: "Colored People Allowed in the Car."
The opening encounter reveals that Lizzie was denied a seat by the conductor, not because of complaints from passengers, but from his open racism- in a FREE Northern state! Lizzie confronted him, indicating the many empty seats. He shoved and shouted, but she held her ground. A crowd gathered as the streetcar and horses waited in place. Even after she was dumped on the street, she scrambled aboard and hung on tight.
The conductor resumed the ride, but hailed a police officer only five blocks further on the route. He soon put Lizzie out, despite her claim to prevent having her rights violated. The officer dared her to file a complaint, saying ti would have no success.
The following sequence of events reveals surprising support: from a White witness, from her internal debate about making things worse if she lost a case, and from an organized community determined to move ahead in the name of justice. 

"The gavel sounded, and the case began—

Elizabeth Jennings v. The Third Avenue Railroad Company."

Remember, this happened more than a hundred years before Rosa Parks's similar protest led to the bus boycott in Montgomery.  Despite a jury of only White men, Lizzie;s case had the support of a qualified attorney, a White male witness, and Lizzie's own willingness to assert her rights. 
She won the case.  
Others were inspired by her success and launched cases against other individual streetcar companies. They, too, helped move the balance of justice toward equality. 

This historical picture book has a satisfying and inspiring conclusion, followed by a note from the author that offers an equally stirring elaboration on the details of Lizzie's life and times. The primary and other resources cited in the back matter invite further investigations and allow readers to confirm details as they wish to do so. 

This book is an exemplary nonfiction title that will appeal to early elementary readers as well as older ones, including adults. Particularly at a time in which we might despair at local and global issues, this serves as a reminder that standing up, speaking up, and sustaining our sense of self is worth the effort. That being knocked flat, denied, and insulted will not lock the door on change. Like Lizzie, we can climb aboard and hang on, accept help from advocates, and seek support from our communities. 
Individual efforts can be cumulative, can become the stepping stones for those that follow. 
I urge everyone to share this book with youth of any age.

It releases on January 7, 2020, and is available for preorder now.

I received the PDF advance file for this title with no promise of a positive review. 

Women (and Girls) and Glass Ceilings: Part One

"Kids are curious about the world around them and nonfiction is the perfect way to introduce them to that amazing world. History? Biography? Art? Science? Math? Animals? Sports? It's all here and more besides!" 

(From the Cybils Awards description of Elementary and Juvenile nonfiction)

After more than a month of reading, relishing, and examining Cybils nominated titles, I've moved along to the sorting and comparing stage. With such a variety of topics and types to consider, I've been grouping into related stacks of outstanding books: quirky animal books, straightforward animal books, inventors/inventions, history... you get the drift.

My eyes locked onto the perfect stack of books for this post, for this week. Each presented a young girl who had defied expectations of her place, time, or gender to pursue her dreams.  

Until recently, one of my most frequently-viewed posts ran in the early days after I launched this blog. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT FEBRUARY was the first of many references I've made over the years to the dual-edged sword of theme months. My concern has always been that flooding a specific month with attention and featuring books on a particular theme (Black History, Women's History, Hispanic Heritage, even Poetry) is dangerous. That goes beyond the obvious message that such narrowed awareness and exploration isn't "real" learning, that each only merits one-twelfth the attention of all our "more important" studies. Too often this approach also results in unpacking a "theme" collection of books for use, then packing them away again until the next year.

I'll climb down from my soapbox and urge anyone who cares to read more of my eloquent arguments on this thesis in the original post, here.

Assigning such a secondary significance means that the history-making stories of half the population of the world get about 8.5% of the annual educational focus. "HER-story" is stuffed into the month of March then buried under another box of books for a year. That's why November (and every other month of the year) offers a perfect opportunity to celebrate young females who faced challenges and barriers without flinching.

Let's start with THE FIRST STEP: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial. Written by Susan E. Goodman and illustrated by E. B. Lewis, the story of equal-education-seeking young Sarah Roberts couldn't be in better hands. Many young readers have come to know Ruby Bridges and her solitary studies during the civil rights school integration enforcement in the 1960's. The little-known case of Sarah Roberts, though, set the groundwork for establishing desegregation through the courts those many years later.

Back in 1847, four-year-old Sarah was escorted out of her all-white classroom by a police officer. This launches the heartbreaking story of her family's legal, political, and social battle to gain equal educational opportunities for Sarah and all children of color.
Despite set-backs and disappointments, in 1855, before the Civil War, Boston became the fist major American city to integrate its schools. That was more than a hundred years before the BROWN vs. The BOARD of EDUCATION case that finally established "separate is NOT equal". As Goodman says midway through Sarah's process, 

"Every big change has to start somewhere".

The back matter in this picture book is particularly well-suited to close reading and discussion. As she often does, author Goodman doesn't shy away from significant truths. (After all, she's the author of The Truth About Poop and Pee.) In this case she addresses her remarks to young readers, discussing reliable research sources, making decisions about depicting "cloudy" aspects of history, and using modern language within historical context (when the words used for people of color at the time were insulting and demeaning). She provides a timeline of desegregation landmark events with a challenge to readers to decide for themselves which ones are steps forward and which were set-backs.

Stay tuned in coming days for reviews of other outstanding books in which young girls are depicted rocking the boat, making waves, rattling at doors, pushing envelopes, and otherwise cracking, sometimes breaking, those glass ceilings.

And don't you dare put those books in a box and save them for March.

Counting the Days Until...

This holiday season is nothing if not rich with traditions. Your own traditions at this time of year may be rooted in religion, ethnicity, or family beliefs, but I'm willing to bet my new oven that a spirit of giving plays a central role. Notice, I said "giving", not "gifting".

When I was growing up (just a few decades beyond the stone age), my parents introduced a  Christmas ritual that encouraged caring and sharing (and not just avoiding elves who might report back to Santa if I pinched or teased a sibling.) A mantel stretched across one end of our living room above a fireplace flanked by bookcases. Dad would carefully extend the slightly yellowed rolls of cotton, arranging them across the full length of the mantel. Little cardboard houses, complete with sandpaper rooftops, were fitted onto a string of lights to create a "village". At the center of the display was a Nativity scene. Of course, there was no baby Jesus-- yet. What's more, there was no straw in the little wooden manger that would be His bed. 

It was our job to earn the straw for the manger.  Each evening after dinner we were expected to report on our own acts of kindness or sharing that day. Then we could add a blade of straw to the manger bed for each kindness we had demonstrated. Whether we were told this or not, I believed that if we did not provide a suitable welcome, He might not come. 

In a blog post earlier this week I read this quote from Frances Myers Newman: "God is the good in each of us." Perhaps what I believed wasn't really far from the truth.

Rather than decry commercialism, greed, and secularism, perhaps these weeks leading up to gala celebrations could be filled with books that explore the values of kindness and sharing.

Nancy Paulson Books, 2012

Heading up my list of suggestions is EACH KINDNESS, written by Jacqueline Woodson and gorgeously illustrated by E. B. Lewis. It was recently featured on GREAT KID BOOKS blog, among others, and deserves all the attention it is receiving. I rated it at five stars on Goodreads, with this note:

An excellent companion story to Woodson's THE OTHER SIDE, this is a superb example of wounding "by omission": by refusing to return a smile, choosing not to play with someone, judging by appearances, etc.
Bullying is often seen to be overt, aggressive, but this passive rejection, the isolation of a peer because s/he is not... not what? Just not, that's all.
The uncomfortable truth of the ending is that sometimes lessons are learned too late to "fix", but not to late to change us.

Gibbs Smith Publishers, 2002

Another title worth exploring is ORDINARY MARY'S EXTRAORDINARY DEED, by Emily Pearson, illustrated by Fumi Kosaka. A chain of good deeds ripples incredibly far when Mary picks some blueberries and shares a bowl with her neighbor. From that point on each act of kindness (at this stage, blueberry muffins), is passed on to five others, each of whom does a kindness to five more. And so on, and so on. A page at the back lays out the math of the extraordinary possibilities in sharing blueberries.

Young children can hardly wait to begin the process, imagining that their smallest deeds, like the flutter of butterfly wings, can change the world. 

Older readers inevitably raise the question of "what if"- someone breaks the progression, or only passes on a single kindness.

While their awareness of the reality of human nature saddens me, it is heartening to hear others chime in with comments that "a lot of good happens anyway", or "maybe some will help more than five others." Best of all is when a child of any age offers this: "We can at least do the best we can no matter what anyone else does."

Picture Book Studio, 1989

Add this out-of-print title to your library search. It suggests anonymity when doing a kindness for others. MAGICAL HANDS, by Marjorie Barker, illustrated by Yoshi, celebrates the power in each of us to provide simple joys while savoring our secret power to produce happiness in others.

My wish for you, and for all of us, is to begin today to make a place for goodness in our hearts and lives, then share it with others. 

If you know of other titles that foster this spirit, please suggest!