The Kindness Quilt

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Random acts of kindness pictured on a paper quilt

Minna and her classmates have been asked by their teacher, Mrs. Bloom, to work on a Kindness Project. Mrs. Bloom wants them to do and draw and share an act of kindness. Minna and her family do lots of kind things, but Minna can’t decide which one is right for her project. Then she starts writing and drawing and cutting—and an idea for a paper quilt picturing many acts of kindness begins to take shape!

Important lessons about being kind to each other are depicted in NANCY ELIZABETH WALLACE’s charming artwork using origami, recycled paper, markers, crayons, and colored pencils.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, School, Fiction

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Nancy Elizabeth Wallace attended the University of Connecticut, and majored in sociology and psychology with a minor in art history, then continued on for a master’s degree in child development.

For many years, she worked at Yale-New Haven Hospital with children and teenagers as Child Life Specialist helping children to understand what was going to happen if they needed to have a medical test or an operation or a cast.

Then she took two adult education courses, one was about traditional Scherenschnitt (share- en -sssh -nit) scherren means scissors, schnitt means cut. The other was about writing and illustrating children’s books. When she brought in a
cut-paper illustration, the teacher said, “You’ve found your medium!”

Nancy is married to Peter Banks. They have been married for more than 30 years. He is a high school Physics teacher.

They live in Branford, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry, but while the messages promoting kindness and generosity are of course valuable and laudable, the general storyline of Nancy Elizabeth Wallace's The Kindness Quilt is so patently, so unilaterally preachy as to be pretty well nauseating and massively tedious. For if I wanted a sermon or a homily, I would obviously attend a church service (and quite frankly, the constant admonishments to be kind and the rather annoying listings almost feel a bit insulting, as though children have to be constantly hit over their proverbial and collective heads in order to learn and appreciate the importance of kindness, paying it forward etc.). Combined with colourful, but sadly one-dimensional, woefully uninspiring, read aesthetically blah accompanying illustrations, for me, the only true positive about The Kindness Quilt is that yes, I do in fact and indeed agree with everything Nancy Elizabeth Wallace has stated and portrayed (but that presentation, that both narrative and images leave absolutely everything to be personally desired, and thus only a one star ranking, and really, The Kindness Quilt is only to be recommended for readers who in fact enjoy being preached at and seromised, being continuously spoon-fed cloyingly and sickeningly sweet tripe).

[Adriana Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Text to teach connection:

This is such a good book for young students! It shows an example of kindness and teaches the students how to be kind to one another. Kindness can come in big or small acts and look many different ways. I love the idea of making your own kindness quilt for the classroom. Have the students go home and paint or draw, or even use paper to make a “quilt” piece to bring back. Once everyone is done, it would be an awesome wall piece or bulletin board!

[Charlotte Burge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts off with Minna's teacher reading the class a fable at story time called The Lion and the Mouse. In the story, Minna's teacher talks to the class about the moral message it contains and the class come up with one of their own, to be kind. As a homework project the class have to make a picture representing something kind they have done. Minna does lots of kind things with her parents and then thinks long and hard about her picture. When she takes it into school the other children comment on how it is so beautiful and it looks just like a quilt! Everyone makes theirs look like a quilt too with Minna's help and they're put up on display in the classroom. As the class do more and more kind things the display grows so big that they had to move it to the biggest wall in the hall! It grows bigger and bigger every day.

This book is more suited to a mid to late Key Stage 1 level; I would ideally recommend it for children towards the end of Year One. I say this because it lacks the rhythmic, rhyming quality found in Early Years level literature and also contains some quite difficult concepts such as fables and morality.

This book is lovely and has some really important key themes running through it. It would be a great way to begin some fable work in literacy before progressing onto a traditional tale as it introduces the genre in an accessible way.

The illustrations are basic and very sweet, the fact that all the characters are bunnies makes it very applicable to Early Years children and caters to the development of their imagination whilst still being relatable to their own lives. The book lends itself to cross curricular activities and you could make your own quilt with your pupils too as a PSED/Art activity.

I really enjoyed this book and liked the deeper meaning behind it. This book is part of a series about Minna which does open avenues for progression and also enables you to use Minna as a character for cross curricular activities (such as 'Minna's maths problems') as she becomes more familiar to the class. The writing is very sophisticated and whilst giving a fabulous example of quality literature, it also captivates with lovely illustrations that are simple and clear.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book, and it was a sweet book, but, somehow, I expected more from it. Maybe I just didn't like when the focus shifted from being kind to doing kind things to draw about them.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for the classroom? but not one I would add to our home library or even read again.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea behind this book is great, the execution is just okay. Minna's class at school is doing a project where you do something kind and then draw a picture about it. The project spirals out into a big paper quilt on the classroom wall. I love how the story shows kindness spreading. My problem is with how the focus moves from being kind for kindness' sake and being kind so you can display your kindness and pat yourself on the back. I'm also not a fan of the artwork, but that's a stylistic choice. It's done in a collage format, which fits the quilt theme. I, personally, am not a big fan of collage art.
A decent, but not outstanding, book.

[Hailey Ek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts in a classroom setting and the teacher is reading a fable about a kind Mouse who saves the Lion after the Lion had let the Mouse go earlier in the story. You can be kind even if you’re big or small. Minna, one of the students in the class, showed kindness in many ways throughout the book! She realized there were so many ways to show kindness!! She ended up making a kindness quilt, because she could decide on just one.
With this book I would also create a kindness quilt in my classroom.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the book for its intention - to encourage acts of kindness. The illustrations are cute. But this was the first book this year that my class didn’t unanimously love. And while I’ve been intentional in choosing stories for them this year more than ever, they haven’t all been home runs, but this one elicited many groans because it was “way too long.” And I agree!! If I can look at this again next year and figure out how to summarize a little, that would be a good thing.

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bleh. There are way better and more interesting books about kindness and the importance of being kind out there. Really nothing interesting or special in this book and I found the message bland and lacking. The retelling of the lion and the mouse story was annoying and not needed. I won’t give it one star because it’s not harmful or damaging, but definitely not something that’s worth the five minutes it took to read, because you’ll forget all about it after another five.

[Bonnie Dale Keck · Rating 3 out of 5]

kindle unlimited

too me almost 5 minutes to get the screen popup down, the one that said how to zoom in, and then it didn't even work, so definitely not for kindle, on top of the fact it just boom ended

3 to match the amazon 3, have quit trying to figure out if it's eqaivent since 'meanings' of the stars are so different as to be unusable between the 2

[Tamber Bliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindness Over Flowing

What a great way to promote kindness . I will be surely telling Samanthas teacher about this book and i hopefully will get to see their own kindness quilt at Charles Wright ..

This is a great way to remind your children how important it is to be kind to those that are around you and how to appreciate a kindness given to you.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The growing "quilt" of kindnesses across the whole school that formed at the end was really cool.

I have some questions around how chores are treated here, but that might be a good conversation to have with kids? (What do they think makes something kind, can we do something that we have to do out of kindness, etc.)

[Suzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it this morning and my five year old immediately started making his own kindness quilt, and he requested that we read it after school too! This was a well-written book and I liked how the author incorporated the Aesop fable of the lion and the mouse into it, along with a lesson about morals and different interpretations of literature.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this picture book with adorable paper collage bunnies, Nancy Elizabeth Wallace inspires the reader to recognize and do kind actions. This story provides several acts of kindness examples that are easy to incorporate into our lives. It also shows how all the good things we can do for others adds up and makes the world we live in a better place.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute story that would have been a much better picture book if it had better illustrations. The premise is an opportunity to showcase beautiful artwork and creativity, and unfortunately what is presented is disappointing. 3.5 stars for the story but 1.5 for the illustrations leads to a 2.5 overall rating.

[Miss Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minna as a school assignment to draw an act of kindness. Minna cannot choose which act of kindness to draw so she make a quilt square that shows a few different acts of kindness. When the teacher hangs the drawing up it look like a big quilt and soon othe classes add to the kindness quilt. Would be a good book to share in an elementary classroom.

[Patricia Martina Saxon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindness in art

This book is filled with simplistic ways in which people show random acts of kindness. The book uses the theme of reading as a tool or avenue for providing .multiple ways that people can be kind. Great book for all ages.

[Taylor Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because I think that kindness is a very important trait for children to learn and recognize early. This was a cute book about how kindness is never too big or too small. It is reachable by anyone and we can impact others to be kind as well when we are kind.

[Archana Vasudevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice Simple Examples

Nice simple examples to get little kinds do understand the concept. Good art ideas too. Much better activity than plain video watching :-)

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lovely book is great! It shows that there are so many simple ways to be kind. My class made their own kindness quilt after reading the book.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, that is filled with quilt pictures drawn by children, and added to the school walls to form a quilt.

[Elan E McMillin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

This book had an excellent message of kindness for all ages. My first grader read it. She said it was great. We hope kindness quilts become a thing in schools.

[Samantha Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet story about spreading acts of kindness.

[SB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute book about kindness very good reminder that all kids need to be kind.

[Johannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would love to use for an art project. Cute but A)rabbits in clothes and B) I struggle a little with the almost “bragging” about your kindness.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all kids! Very sweet and a good lesson in kindness.

[Ellen L. Ramsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book about kindness and creating a kindness quilt!

[Gayle Swift · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our daily lives consists of interactions with others plus conversations within ourselves about who we are, what we value and how that governs the actions we choose. Emotions influence us and shape what we think and how we act. The way we engage with others affects how they respond and listen to us. Kindness is the WD40© of human relationships.
Nancy Elizabeth Wallace wrote and illustrated The Kindness Quilt it uses our love for quilts to help readers see how individual acts of kindness can blanket a classroom, school and community to yield increased acceptance, tolerance and happiness. When kindness becomes a group endeavor, the benefits multiply.
In the story, the teacher proposes that students commit to performing acts of kindness. When they complete the project they share their experiences in a "do-and-draw-and-share Kindness Project." The children do a variety of deeds and when they gather their reports one child exclaims that it looks like a quilt block. As the kindnesses increase their "quilt" grows larger. It outgrows the classroom bulletin board and expands to the hall. Soon other classes join and "the kindness kept growing and growing and growing."
Readers will certainly get the point that kindness begets kindness.
Adoption-attuned (AQ) Lens: Most of us learned that the best way to have a friend is to be a friend. The Kindness Quilt shows readers how "being" a friend can look as well as how it can multiply. Adopted children benefit from the guidance of family, teachers, etc on how to resist any adoption-connected negativity which they experience. Kindness is certainly an important habit for them to include in their "tool box" of social skills.
The quilt also serves as a multi-layered metaphor for creating beauty from diverse pieces. Variations in color, size, texture, etc., ENHANCES the design. This is a healthy and reassuring message for our kids. .--Gayle H. Swift, ABC, Adoption & Me: A Multicultural Picture Book"

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A class of rabbits has an assignment to do an act of kindness and draw a picture about it. One little rabbit makes multiple pictures into a quilt and the class project begins to grow and grow and grow. Preschool for length. Nice pay it forward message.

[Kristen Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about kindness and gives many great examples of how to be kind and what it looks like. It can relate to the students because it shows a class of bunnies reading a book, they pause and have discussions just like the students do in their classrooms.It then goes into a discussion of how kindess was the moral of the story they read. They talk about what it means to be kind and what you can do to be kind. It also can be useful for describing the writing process because the teacher uses the "do-and-draw-and-share" concept for a project. Therefore, the students could use this as a way to write about kindess using this process or they can create their own Kindness Project. Also, the students could each create one square of the quilt adn create a class kindness quilt. The illustrations are really cute using felt pictures of felt characters instead of drawn. It also uses realistic children's drawings for the project examples. I love this book.