Brooklyn Book Festival Children's Day (Saturday, September 19, 2015)

Metro Tech Commons in Downtown Brooklyn

Kevin Henkes is talking about his new book, Waiting, with Jon Scieszka

Carmen Fariña, the current New York City Schools Chancellor, is emphasizing the importance of children's books for the social emotional development of young children.

With Kevin Henkes, the author of Chrysanthemum

The audience is following Kathryn Otoshi's body movements as she tells the story of Zero.

Kathryn Otoshi, the author of One and Zero, is introducing her new book, Two.

Otoshi is asking the audience what our beautiful hands can do, while introducing her new book, Beautiful Hands, created with Bret Baumgarten.

Otoshi autographed her book, Beautiful Hands for the students of Forest Road School.

Drew Daywalt is reading aloud The Day the Crayons Came Home, 

the highly anticipated sequel to The Day the Crayons Quit.

A great time for families to indulge in books and mingle with authors and illustrators

Abby Hanlon (author of Dory Fantasmagory), Jon Scieszka (Frank Einstein), and Lenore Look (Alvin Ho) are talking about their lovable, unforgettable, favorite

chapter book characters they created.

Creators of Bestselling Series

Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), George O'Connor (Olympians), and Lauren Tarshis (I Survived)
are discussung their work.

The Character Trait of September is Kindness

Kindness

As the new school year begins, students meet their new teachers and new classmates.  Making friends can be more difficult for some students than for others.

 
Empathy is a feeling that goes beyond sympathy, which is ‘feeling with’ compassion for another person.  According to Psychology Today, “Empathy is the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective. You place yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling. Empathy is known to increase prosocial (helping) behaviors.”

If more people are able to feel empathy in our society, people may be able to share their burdens with other members of society.  Such burdens may include financial, domestic, job-related, or health problems.  If more people take the time to place themselves in others’ shoes and feel what others go through, members of our society may be able to receive encouragement and even healing.    

In the Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, Chloe was not kind to Maya, a new student at her school.  Maya looked different from her and she was wearing sneakers with a broken strap.

When Maya sat next to Chloe and looked at her with a smile, Chloe looked away. She played with her close friends in the playground, without paying any attention to Maya.  This persisted for a couple of weeks.

Maya didn’t come to school one day. That day, the teacher put a pail of water and a stone on top of the teacher’s desk.  She asked the class to look inside the pail.  When she dropped the stone into the pail, circular waves formed and they grew larger and larger.

The teacher explained how each kindness, even trying to feel a classmate’s pain, would spread like the ripples. She invited every student to drop a stone into the pail of water as they shared any small act of kindness they offered to others. Everybody except Chloe came up one by one and dropped the stone and shared about the kindness they offered.

Chloe couldn’t think of any kindness that she offered. She regretted that she didn’t include Maya in her play group.

The following day, Maya didn’t come to school again.  The teacher said that Maya moved to another school.  Chloe felt like a heavy stone was pressing her heart as she realized that she lost her chance to show a little act of kindness to Maya forever.

Why don't we take every opportunity to practice random acts of kindness every day by being kind and thoughtful to each other?

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”

— Leo Burnett

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