Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: E.B. Lewis
There is a new girl at school, and Chloe and her friends won’t play with her. Her name is Maya and she is different. She has old and used clothes, shoes for the wrong season, and brings strange food for lunch. Maya hears the other girls talking about her, and continues asking them to play with her. She begins bringing different things to school to try to impress the girls and convince them to play with her. One day she even wears a nice dress and fancy shoes. The girls laughed and excluded her.
Suddenly, Maya stops coming to school. Chloe’s teacher starts telling them about the importance of kindness. The ping of lost opportunity for friendship and kindness begins gnawing away at Chloe. All she wants is for Maya to return to school.
This is such a special story, because it ends differently than you would expect it. It isn’t necessarily a happy ending, but teaches the readers a valuable lesson through the character’s loss. My third graders absolutely loved the story and were deeply moved by the message that small ripples make big waves. I believe it will interest readers because it is so relatable to what they experience in school. It also brings in the unspoken theme of homelessness/poverty in a kid friendly way.
Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNgYno4W14
Suddenly, Maya stops coming to school. Chloe’s teacher starts telling them about the importance of kindness. The ping of lost opportunity for friendship and kindness begins gnawing away at Chloe. All she wants is for Maya to return to school.
This is such a special story, because it ends differently than you would expect it. It isn’t necessarily a happy ending, but teaches the readers a valuable lesson through the character’s loss. My third graders absolutely loved the story and were deeply moved by the message that small ripples make big waves. I believe it will interest readers because it is so relatable to what they experience in school. It also brings in the unspoken theme of homelessness/poverty in a kid friendly way.
Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNgYno4W14
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