Each Kindness
Written by Jacqueline Woodson, Illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Publisher’s Summary:
Chloe and her friends won’t play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually, Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe’s teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship and thinks about how much better it could have been if she’d shown a little kindness toward Maya.

Primary Source Pairing:
The message of being considerate and compassionate to others in Each Kindness resonates with each reader as he or she thinks about a child like Maya they know. Children everywhere experience the opportunity to reflect on their behavior and strive to be kinder. For this primary source pairing, invite students to examine a photograph of a playground where many students are gathered. As part of the analysis, invite students to make an inference about when this photograph was taken using visual clues. Unveil the date the photograph was taken once the analysis is complete.

This photograph of the students on the playground is part of a Primary Source Set curated by the Library of Congress focusing on Children’s Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Click here to view the images in this collection and to download the Educator’s Guide.

Questions for Discussion:

• Describe what you see.
• What do you notice first?
• What people and objects are shown?
• How are they arranged?
• What is the physical setting?
• What other details can you see?
• Why do you think this image was made?
• What’s happening in the image?
• When do you think it was made?
• What can you learn from examining this image?
• If someone took a photograph like this today what would be different?
• What would be the same?
• Make a connection between the image of the students on the playground to the story of Chloe and Maya in Each Kindness.

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
Children’s Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Primary Source Set: Library of Congress
Students on Playground Photograph: Library of Congress