Collection of poems for children translated into English. Beautiful illustrations!

This book feels a bit like a collection of folktales. Lots of big emotions and the poetry feels almost cautionary at times.

The verses don’t rhyme, but are written in prose—just something for the reader to be aware of, in case they are expecting something rhythmic.

The Book of Kindness by Egor Klopenko is a collections of poems and illustraions for children. I think parents would benefit from reading it together with their young children for a heartwarming experience for the entire family. Though one of the more obvious issues is the lack of diversity, I think it can be chalked up to the original country where it was published, and it didn't take away from the core morals conveyed. In particular, I loved the last poem What Is, as it explains kindness in terms of different professions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Egor Klopenko for providing this ARC!

I think the absolute star of this book is the last two poems, What is Kindness. I would absolutely look at this with my grade 5 class and do a literary study of it. I found it so powerful to have different voices interpretation of kindness (may have all come from the author but regardless still powerful). It was also so powerful to highlight how one small act of kindness can have a ripple effect.

While I absolutely loved the graphics of this book, I was really disappointed at the lack of diversity in this book, not only in skin colour but also the representations of families and physical ability. The art style is stunning and found myself completely taken by the gorgeous illustration of the whale especially. Also, the message that an elephant is kind because it lets children ride around on it was shocking. Many elephants being used for riding for financial gain are abused, which I feel is well-known in this day and age, and therefore quite unsettling that would be approved in a current book. Also for a mother to call her husband odd? I was quite confused.

So while I enjoyed parts of this book .. it is not something that I would feel comfortable having in my classroom.

This book is perfect for ages 5 and up. I think that’s when kids become aware of themselves and their actions. The messages were good and the artwork is stunning. The star of this book (pun intended) was the story The Star. I would definitely purchase this book for my nephews!

What an absolutely precious and necessary little book! We could all learn something from this. So cute.