#PoetryFriday - A Recent Kindness

  

  Poetry Friday is with Jan Godown Annino, who's hosting HERE at BookseedStudio. Thanks for hosting, Jan, lovely to see you here! And thanks for the post showing off a wonderful book inspiring your own poem.

I am thinking of these words from Maya Angelou:  “I’ve learned you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.” 

             I've loved other books, other tales, other inspiration from Irene Latham before. A granddaughter visiting this week asked to read "that cat book" again, meaning The Cat Man of Aleppo. Then we searched about him on the web, finally discovering those who are helping pets to survive in different places in Ukraine. She will be eleven in a few weeks, knows all the news, and it felt good to show her how people all over the world are showing kindness, for animals and people! 

              Irene's most recent book is 12 Days of Kindness, follows the well-known song "Twelve Days of Christmas" with a myriad of children and adults showing varied ways we can be kind.

        Each part of the verse shows a new act of kindness; hugs and smiles, greetings and thank-you notes fill people's worlds and bring smiles from them, too. All kinds of people are there in the color-filled illustrations by Junghwa Park. There are family members, school workers, and recess buddies. Kindness wraps the day from the top to the sweetest ending I would hope for every child. The left side demonstrates the kindnesses as the right side fills up page by page as those "12 days" pass. 

         In these recent weeks, it feels as if a kindness given will lift friends, family members, and strangers, too. We all need it! I know this would be a book to share in my classroom if I were still teaching. Thanks, Irene, for your own kindness shared by writing this wonderful book.