Celebrating the Joy in Everyday Life!
June 21st, 2012 
Carol 
The news is filled with terrible things happening around the world and terrible people doing horrific things to themselves and others. Schools, neighborhoods, and online communications seem filled with bullies. Even cartoons and commercials often depict bad things.
Many parents, teachers and other adults forget how impressionable young children are. Happily there is a way to begin to change what children absorb from those around them: focus on the good in the world.
That is one of the reasons Lynea Gillen, MS, who has as a school teacher and counselor for over 30 years, felt a book was needed to give children a different way of looking at the people around them – and a new way of thinking about others in the world. She accomplishes this with carefully thought out words that have been combined with delicate, warm images created by illustrator Kristina Swarner in Good People Everywhere (© 8/12, ThreePebblePress.com).
The book begins, “Today in neighborhoods all over the world, millions and millions of people are doing very good things.” Then each page delightfully unfolds with endearing examples and alluring illustrations showing carpenters building houses and repairing homes damaged by storms, and cooks making meals for people who don’t have homes. There are moms and dads cooking dinner for their families and a teenage boy helping a young child who is sad and lonely. There are dancers and musicians and teachers and farmers…by the middle of the book, the reader and the child begin to realize how many good people are out there doing good–even great–things everyday.
Good People Everywhere is a wonderful counterbalance to the usually harsh depiction of the world with a soothing and enduring message of heartfelt virtue. This gentle story will help children (and adults) become more mindful of the multitude of beautiful, caring people in their world.
The combination of engaging illustrations and simple yet endearing reminders of the goodness of everyday life will warm hearts, evoke the imagination and inspire young and old to emulate this world of beauty, compassion and gratitude.
Good People Everywhere is a wonderful way to send any child off to sleep, to ease their fears and to develop a sense of gratitude. Bonus activities, included at the end of the book, will spur discussion and reinforce and extend learning into daily life, giving children opportunities to practice skills that will help them to grow into grateful, caring and giving people.
Good People Everywhere will help children notice the good things going on in the world, celebrate the joy in everyday life and lead them to envision positive futures.
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