RAOKBooks

Random Acts Of Kindness Books

Aesop. Androcles and the Lion, and other Aesop's Fables. Paxton, Tom (ed.). New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1991.

Aesop. The Lion and the Mouse. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979.

Aliki. The Twelve Months. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1978. [The poor widow who finds good in every month of the year is rewarded while her complaining rich neighbour receives a jar of snakes.]

Bang, Molly. The Paper Crane. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1985. [An honest and hard-working father and son own a restaurant that has fallen on hard times. One day a stranger comes to the restaurant, and though he cannot pay for his meal, he is fed like a king.]

Bunting, Eve. Magic and the Night River. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. [A Japanese boy and his grandfather fish successfully with their cormorants because they have treated the birds with kindness.]

Bunting, Eve. Smoky Night. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1994. [When the Los Angeles riots break out in the streets of their neighbourhood, a young boy and his mother learn the value of getting along with others no matter what their background or nationality.]

Carlson, Nancy L. Arnie and the New Kid. New York: Viking, 1990. [Top cat Arnie teases Philip because he is confined to a wheelchair. Yet when Arnie falls down the school steps and breaks a leg, twists a wrist, and sprains a tail, he begins to see life from a different perspective.]

Colf, Mary K., and Len Oszustowicz. 301 Random Acts of Kindness: A User's Guide to a Giving Life. Arlington, TX: Summit Publishing Group, 1994. [Challenges readers to tackle the list and actually commit themselves to take concrete steps toward the creation of a better world.]

DeSpain, Pleasant. �Toads and Diamonds.� Twenty-two Splendid Tales to Tell from Around the World. Little Rock, AR: August House Publishers, 1994.

Fleischman, Sid. The Scarebird. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1988. [A lonely farmer begins a friendship with a scarecrow, but finds a real companion in his new hired hand.]

Grimm, Wilhelm, and Jacob Grimm. Snow White and Rose Red. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1984. [A bear, befriended by two sisters during the winter, returns one day to reward them royally for their kindness.]

Hall, Lynn. Barry: The Bravest Saint Bernard. New York: Random House, Inc., 1992. [This is the true story of a Saint Bernard who rescued over forty people, and whose courage and kindness became legendary.]

Hoff, Syd. Little Chief. New York: Harper, 1961. [An Indian boy's kindness encourages a group of frontiersmen to settle in the same green valley as the Indians.]

Hurwitz, Johanna. Aldo Ice Cream. New York: Morrow, 1981. [Aldo is working through the summer, trying to earn enough money to pay for the ice cream machine his sister wants for her birthday.]

Hyde, Katherine Ryan. Pay It Forward. New York: Pocket Books, 2000. [Trevor chooses three people for whom he will do a kind act and tells them that instead of paying him back they should each pay it forward with acts of kindness to three more people.]

Lorbiecki, Marybeth. Sister Anne�s Hands. New York: Puffin, 2000. [Seven-year-old Anna has her first encounter with racism in the 1960s when an African-American nun comes to teach at her parochial school.]

Murphy, Mary. How Kind. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2002. [A hen�s single act of kindness becomes infectious as the animals pass it on; kindness affects every animal in the barnyard and eventually finds its way back to her.]

Pearson, Emily. Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2002. [A young girl's good deed is multiplied as it is passed on by those who have been touched by the kindess of others.]

Peet, Bill. Kermit the Hermit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. [After a mean, selfish crab is rescued by a boy, the crab searches for a way to repay the kindness.]

Polacco, Patricia. Mrs. Katz and Tush. New York: Bantam Books, 1992. [Larnel Moore, a young African-American boy, and Mrs. Katz, an elderly Jewish woman, develop an unusual friendship through their mutual concern for an abandoned cat named Tush.]

San Souci, Robert D. The Talking Eggs. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1989. [A Southern folktale in which kind Blanche, following the instructions of an old witch, gains riches, while her greedy sister makes fun of the old woman and is duly rewarded.]

Schotter, Roni. Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane. New York: Orchard Books, 1989. [In this tender twist on a familiar theme, a neighborhood curmudgeon � "thin and mean and bent and bitter"� is changed by youngsters' kindness.]

Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree. New York: HarperCollins, 1986. [A moving parable about the gift of giving and the capacity to love, told throughout the life of a boy who grows to manhood and a tree that selflessly gives him her bounty through the years.]

Small, Ernest. Baba Yaga. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. [An adaptation of a Russian folktale about a nasty witch who supposedly eats bad little children.]

Spinelli, Eileen. Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. New York: Bradbury Press, 1991. [An anonymous Valentine changes the life of the unsociable Mr. Hatch, turning him into a laughing friend who helps and appreciates all his neighbors.]

Steptoe, John. Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1987. [Mufaro's two beautiful daughters, one bad-tempered, one kind and sweet, go before the king, who is choosing a wife.]

Wilde, Oscar. The Selfish Giant. Natick, MA: Picture Book Studio USA, 1984. [A once selfish giant welcomes the children to his previously forbidden garden and is eventually rewarded by an unusual little child.]

Zolotow, Charlotte. I Know a Lady. New York: Greenwillow, 1984. [Sally describes a loving and lovable old lady in her neighborhood who grows flowers, waves to children when they pass her house, and bakes cookies for them at Christmas.]

Other Teacher Resources:

Baldrige, Letitia. Letitia Baldrige's More than Manners! � Raising Today's Kids to Have Kind Manners & Good Hearts. New York: Rawson Associates, 1997.

Bennett, William J. (ed.). The Book of Virtues for Young People: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories. Parsippany, NJ: Silver Burdett Press, 1995.

The Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings by and about the Dalai Lama. Piburn, Sidney (ed.) Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1990.

Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Little Brown & Co., 2000.

Kilpatrick, William. Books that Build Character: A Guide to Teaching Your Child Moral Values through Stories. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Lamme, Linda Leonard. Literature-based Moral Education: Children's Books and Activities for Teaching Values, Responsibility & Good Judgment in the Elementary School. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1992.

Lickona, Thomas. Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility. New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1992.

Paley, Vivian Gussin. The Kindness of Children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Rice, Judith. The Kindness Curriculum: Introducing Young Children to Loving Values. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press, 1995.

Teachers Resources