A World of Kindness

A World of Kindness brings together art from a variety of artists, each piece accompanying a succinct question that encourages kids from about three to six to be kind. The artists have donated their art to the book, which in turn will donate its proceeds to the Think Kindness foundation.

The book gently nudges young children to be considerate of others in their actions, with questions like, “When someone is shy, do you help her join in?” For each question, the accompanying illustration shows an example of what such an action might look like. In the previous example, a picture using paper cut-outs and with detailed colored pencil and painted touches shows two children sitting side by side, one holding a book and looking encouragingly at his companion, a girl with her legs pulled to her chest, who’s looking down, shy and reserved. Many of the illustrations are quite lovely, and they come in a range of styles using a variety of mediums, from clay to chalk to the aforementioned paper cut-outs. I appreciate the book’s simple approach to a concept that can be somewhat amorphous. The questions and illustrations give kids concrete examples of what kindness can look like and encourage them to pause to consider their own actions and the effect they have on others. All that together with the fact that the book’s proceeds benefit a good cause make this one not to miss.