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Today’s book review, for World Kindness Day, is The Boy Who Loved Everyone by Jane Porter. It was published by Walker Books on 7th November and it can be purchased on Amazon*.
“I love you,” Dimitri tells everyone, from his friends at nursery to the big tree in the playground. But why does no one say it back? Dimitri worries no one loves him – until he finds out there are lots of different ways love can spread through the world.
As today is World Kindness Day, I wanted to share a book relating to the subject. Something we really try to teach Erin is that even though people are different to her, it’s important to be kind to everyone. In this book, we meet Dimitri, who is so happy to be at school and with his friends. While sitting down to be read a story by the teacher he says to one of his friends ‘I love you’ but they don’t say it back.
Throughout the book Dimitri does lots of other things with his friends and each time says to them ‘I love you.’ He is such a happy, friendly child and just wants to share how he feels with his friends but none of them repeat the words to him. The illustrations throughout the book are really great and there’s so much for children to look at and take in.
Later in the book Dimitri talks to his mother and explains about what he said to his friends and how they didn’t say it back. The mother does a really good job of explaining to Dimitri that all people are different and they have their own way of doing things. She shows Dimitri that you don’t have to say the words ‘I love you’ out loud to show that kind of feeling for someone or something.
I really love how the book takes on such a simple topic. Children might not realise that they do things differently to others and that reactions might not be what they are expecting. The language used is simple and the images are all things that children will be able to recognise or relate to. Something else I really appreciated was the children in the story. We live in a small town and there isn’t much diversity so it was nice to be able to talk about new names and faces with Erin.
I think The Boy Who Loved Everyone is such a nice book to read today, on World Kindness Day, as well as any other day. It reminds not only children, but ourselves, that being kind to others costs nothing!
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This does sound like a very appropriate book for world kindness day. It also helps to make children understand that we don’t all do things the same and that we need to be aware of this and not be upset if they don’t get the reaction they expect.
Oh my! What a wonderful book ?
I might have to get this for the children at school, I’ll be sharing with my boss today x x
This sounds like a lovely book to teach about kindness and how we are all different. It is hard to explain sometimes.
What a lovely book and message – it IS so important to be kind to everyone and that’s exactly what we teach our daughter also.
Kindness is everything, my daughter was telling me about a girl at school who was being bullied so she made friends with her and hung around with her. I was so proud.
How lovely is this. a book that actually teaches some good values too. Love the illustrations xx
This sounds like a lovely book, I love the message behind it. Will have to check if our library has it.
What a lovely lovely book, I love books with messages in for kids as it gives them a chance to take in all the information and think about their actions too
This sounds like a lovely book. And, i love how it’s illustrated