Kindness Without Words

Wednesdays are super important to my two children.  In my house, Wednesdays are called Library/Pizza Wednesdays.  Wednesday evenings are spent at the public library together as a family, followed by pizza for dinner at Dewey's.  My kids look forward to this evening every week.....and honestly, I do too.  It's a fun tradition that we started over the summer with my sister and two nieces.

Pizza after the library with my two nieces

This past Wednesday, I came across a picture book that I haven't read before and I really want to share it with you!!  It is called Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith.  I immediately fell in love with this book.  The pictures are beautiful.....and did I mention that it is a wordless picture book in a style that looks like a graphic novel?!?!  Awesome, right?!?! I love it!

Sidewalk Flowers is such a powerful story about a little girl showing small acts of kindness as she walks home from the grocery store with her preoccupied father.  Along their walk through the busy, black-and-white colored streets, the little girl pays close attention to the world around her while her father is distracted with his thoughts and cell phone.  While walking through the streets, the young girl collects colorful weeds and flowers that are springing up through the cracks in the sidewalk.  She begins to give her colorful bouquets away as an act of kindness to a dead bird, a sleeping/homeless man in the park, a neighbor dog, and lastly her mother and siblings once she gets home.  As you turn each page, the scenes start to fill with more and more color....and by the end of the book, the page is complete with beautiful watercolors.

Wordless picture books are perfect to use in the classroom because they have so many functions.  I especially love to use them when teaching my students how to make inferences.  Wouldn't this book be good to use when teaching character traits too??

There are so many wordless books that I love and this one is definitely going on my list to purchase.   Have you read this one before?