Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Kindness Quilt
Picture Book
For ages 4 to 8
Marshall Cavendish, 2006 ISBN: 978-0761453130
One day Minna’s teacher reads the class the story about the lion and the mouse from the book of Aesop’s Fables. She then asks each of her little bunny students to “celebrate kindness with a do-and-draw-and-share” project. When Minna gets home she tells her family about the new project and she soon discovers that her biggest problem is not what should she do but how should she manage all the things that she does. For Minna discovers that doing acts of kindness is contagious. She begins by reading a story to her little brother Pip. She then goes on to help her mother with a recycling project and to help her father make some soup for some neighbors. The contagiousness continues for now Minna’s mother, father and brother are kind to her as well. For every kind act that she does or that is done to her, Minna makes a drawing.
Soon Minna has a whole collection of drawings of acts of kindness. How is she supposed to pick out one of them when they are all special? In the end Minna makes a quilt of her pictures and her work of art so inspires her class that soon a quilt of acts of kindness is spreading across her classroom wall.
This charming picture book will inspire school children to create kindness quilts of their own. In so doing they will realize how their lives are full of acts of kindness and that both giving and receiving kindnesses makes life truly special for us all.
Children will love the author’s wonderful multimedia collage illustrations and may be inspired to create artwork of their own using similar media.
