Race to Kindness Review

 Race to Kindness 

By Orion Jean

5/5

*Thank you to the author and netgalley for allowing me to read and review this masterpiece of a book.*

Wow!  Color me impressed!  I was immediately taken by this book and the mature message it shares, along with the intelligent and clever way it is written.  But now that I know the author is 11-years-old I'm even more blown away by it.  This book is, dare I say, the best execution I've ever seen of successfully teaching a principal (i.e. kindness).  Let's start at the very beginning, shall we?  (...a very good place to start.)  I love that the first page of this book is a form that children can sign that invites them to join the "race to kindness".  Physical invitations like this are, in my opinion, the best way to evoke action.  I truly think that children will take this invitation seriously as they sign their name and write the date.  The next thing I love about this book is that it rhymes.  I have heard book publishers mention that rhyming books are slowly becoming less appealing for them to publish, but as a pediatric speech therapist I understand and can attest to the value of books that rhyme.  Rhyming is a pre-literacy skill that children need to learn in their pathway to reading.  Not to mention that rhyming books are fun to read and a sure way to make a book's message memorable.  The highlight of this book for me is the fact that the author made an acronym out of the short phrase, "BE K.I.N.D.".  What better way for children to remember how to be be kind than through an acronym that they can easily memorize?  As an adult, I struggle sometimes with knowing how I can help others and the specific things I can do to show my love through service.  So, I especially appreciate that this book gives specific examples of things we can all do to "be kind".  The "D" in the acronym "K.I.N.D." was my favorite thing to read about because it encourages people to get up and to take action.  It's so easy for us, especially as adults, to reach out to the people who we know need assistance with a text that simply says, "Let me know if there's anything I can do for you."  So often we don't take the initiative to help without someone asking for it.  But this book makes it clear that there are so many ways to serve and to show kindness, and that we should do so without waiting for someone to tell us what to do.  To sum up my views on this book I'll say one thing- I wish this book wasn't categorized as "children's literature" because I think everyone, and especially adults, should read this book and learn from it's beautiful and powerful message.