It starts with a tiny blue dot making its way along a busy street hitching a ride on some smart new trainers and because the boy makes him welcome and is kind that makes it grow bigger.
A big puddle means the boys shoes get soaked through, but a girl kindly offers him a towel and the dot grows again. On they go, helping an old man and a stranded kitten; all through the town spreading kindness, which means the dot gets bigger and bigger and happiness spreads, until the mayor kindly decides to take everyone to the beach for icecream. The lovely rhyming text swoops and swirls along with them. But then they meet a huge, fiery anger and a little girl who has been left out. Undaunted, kindness sees the sadness inside the anger, and cuddles and inclusion smooth the way for a delightful beach party for all.
With a lovely diverse and inclusive cast of characters and a really joyful colour palette the evocative illustrations are wonderful at conveying emotions with a very impactful use of thick black and flame red to personify the anger. This conveys an important message about the power of simple acts of kindness ‘just pass on a smile and you’ll never regret it.’
A delightful book to read aloud and to share one to one.
There once was a dot, who was really quite small, who sat on the pavement not minding at all that is wasn't that big or that bold or that rough, for this dot was KINDNESS and that was enough.
Kindness comes in all shapes and sizes and in this uplifting and inspiring book, it starts out as a dot and morphs into all sorts of different forms as it spreads joy wherever it goes. The power of kindness is explored in a distinctive and deceptively simple way as we witness kindness overcoming anger and sadness.
A beautiful book with a strong and important message.
Lucy Rowland grew up in Cheltenham and gained a degree in Speech and Language Therapy from the University of Reading before becoming a children's speech and language therapist in South London where she now lives. Lucy has loved reading and listening to poetry from a young age and has turned her passion into writing picture book stories with quirky characters and irresistible rhythms. Pirate Pete and His Smelly Feet is Lucy's first picture book with Macmillan.
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