Engage Amherst Kindness Booklist 2024

Pictures and rhyming text celebrate a family's day spent going to the beach, shopping at the market, eating at a restaurant and spending the evening with the rest of the extended family.

When he misses his bus to the zoo, Amos McGee, a friendly zookeeper who was up late planning a surprise for his friends, gets some unexpected help.

When quiet, nine-year-old Ahmet arrives in their classroom, a boy and his friends fail to draw him out but try a new plan after learning he is a Syrian refugee.

Told from two viewpoints, sixth-graders Karina and Chris use social media to stand up to racism in Houston, Texas, after an attack puts Karina's Indian American grandfather in the hospital. Karina Chopra would have never imagined becoming friends with the boy next door--after all, they've avoided each other for years and she assumes Chris is just like the boys he hangs out with, who she labels a pack of hyenas. Then Karina's grandfather starts tutoring...

Clinically depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life. "Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's a Fractional Persian -- half, his mom's side -- and his first ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he's sure...

"Seven wise and wonderful stories, showing how peace and kindness can make our world a better place. These inspirational, timeless stories are from Ethiopia, Sudan, Palestine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria -- plus a rare Uighur story from China. Beautifully told by renowned storyteller Elizabeth Laird, with stunning illustrations by the internationally acclaimed Iranian artist, Mehrdokht Amini"--Back cover.

An elementary school girl witnesses the bullying of another girl, but she is not sure how to help.

"Meet Rico: high school senior and afternoon-shift cashier at the Gas 'n' Go, who after school and work races home to take care of her younger brother. Every. Single. Day. When Rico sells a jackpot-winning lotto ticket, she thinks maybe her luck will finally change, but only if she--with some assistance from her popular and wildly rich classmate Zan--can find the ticket holder who hasn't claimed the prize. But what happens when have and have-nots...

"Nobody notices the queen on the corner. Nobody, that is . . . except one young girl. Through her eyes, the woman who dwells in the abandoned plot is a warrior queen, with many battles fought and won. When, one day, danger comes to the street and the queen on the corner sounds the alarm, the little girl must find a way to thank her. Can she bring the community together to turn the queen's corner into a home?"--Back cover

"As an old man grumbles his way through a rainy morning, spreading gloom, his neighbor, a young child, spreads cheer while hopping through puddles in frog-themed rainwear." --