Cultivating kindness is easy when you try. Spread a little kindness and watch empathy ripple through the community… spreading happiness like sunshine, connecting diverse groups like a footbridge and lifting hope like a kite string. How can YOU lift others with kindness? This compelling book illustrates simple, yet impactful ways, to spread kindness and brighten the lives of others. Through poetry, the inspiring words uplift young readers, planting seeds of empathy, kindness and community support. The best book for positively teaching kindness. Kindness is a Kite by Michelle Schaub carries the key message of kindness as well as how to teach similes and metaphors supported by the many advocates of positive parenting solutions. It'll sit comfortably on your shelf alongside other books that focus on the power of kindness. Like the work of Diane Alber (Scribble Stones) and Brandon Walden (Trees) This book comes with a free Reader's Guide for children. The guide is available for free download from the publisher website. Lesson plans, activities and discussion questions to allow parents, teachers and caregivers to explore the topic further and deepen comprehension. Michelle Schaub is an award-winning children's author and veteran teacher. Her book Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers' Market won the 2018 Growing Good Kids Award and 2019 Northern Lights Book Award. She is also the author of Finding Treasure: A Collection of Collections, an NCTE notable poetry book for 2020, and Dream Big, Little Scientists. Her poems appear in several anthologies, including The Poetry Anthology for Celebrations and Great Morning! Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud. Michelle speaks at conferences on the power of poetry to boost literacy and shares ways to use poetry in the classroom on her blog POETRY BOOST, www.michelleschaub.blogspot.com. Follow Michelle on twitter @Schaubwrites. Cultivating kindness is easy when you try. Spread a little kindness and watch empathy ripple through the community… spreading happiness like sunshine, connecting diverse groups like a footbridge and lifting hope like a kite string. This illustrated poem shows readers that kindness is worth catching and passing on. The first act of kindness spotlighted in this illustrated poem is a child hugging their caregiver upon waking in the morning. This action sets up a chain reaction of kindnesses that flows until the illustrations come full circle, and the family members from the beginning become the beneficiaries of a stranger's kindness when their lost dog is returned to them. The illustrations, brightly colored with a multiracial host of characters, create a story somewhat separate from the poem at times. The commitment to illustrating the ripple effect of kindness creates moments where the text does not sync with the illustrations. Readers will not understand the story about the lost dog until it is resolved, for instance. It also fosters the misleading idea that kindness is always met with the same, a message that is understandable but also not, sadly, totally realistic. On the opening pages, there is a guide instructing adult readers in the practice of dialogic reading. That thoughtful addition will prove helpful to many, since dialogic reading is not intuitive for all adults but, when employed, creates a dynamic and pleasurable reading experience for a child. The backmatter includes an explanation of metaphors and similes that may be a bit advanced for the target age range of the book. A sweet message of kindness and empathy, best tempered with a gentle jolt of reality

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