“Chloe doesn’t really know why she turns away from the new girl, Maya, when Maya tries to befriend her. And every time Maya asks if she can play with Chloe and the other girls, the answer is always no. So Maya ends up playing alone.”

So begins the beautiful, poignant picture book: Each Kindness.

Why did Chloe look away and not smile when the new student, Maya, came into the classroom? Was it because she wore old and ragged clothes?

Why did Chloe and her friends whisper about Maya, laughing at the strange food she brought for her lunch?

Why was the answer, no, when Maya asked Chloe and her friends if she could play with them?

“Never New” became Maya’s new name

“Everything she has came from a secondhand store.”

One day Maya did not come to school.

The teacher brought a large bowl of water to school.

She dropped a small stone into the bowl.

“This is what kindness does,” the teacher said.

“Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world.”

“Each one of you will have a chance to put the stone in the water and tell us what kind things you have done,” said the teacher.

When it was Chloe’s turn she held the stone, but soon passed it on because she couldn’t think of anything.

Each day Chloe hoped she would see Maya in school, so she could look at her and smile. Maya never returned to school.

Days later the teacher told the class Maya’s family had moved away.

Later when Chloe walked home from school she thought about all the kind things she could have said to Maya.

The kindness she could have shown Maya was forever gone.

Was it Maya’s old raggedy clothes? Was it the food she brought to school? Why were Chloe and her friends mean to Maya?

It was because Maya was different.

The adults in this world should be setting an example.

We now have a person in charge who sets the wrong example.

He judges people depending on the color of their skin, how much money they have, who their friends are and how faithful they are to him.

How will our children learn to show kindness to others if adults do not set a good example?