What if
we are all
searching for meaning
in all the wrong places.
What if we are
looking
in
mirrors,
websites
and catalogues
when meaning is not a thing that can be seen,
or clicked on
or bought.
What if it is only something that can be given,
pushed out
into the world.
What if our own,
individual
meaning
does not exist,
but can only be shared,
like air,
like breath.
What if the only true meaning
is kindness?
In Small Acts we meet two kids - Josh and Ollie (Olivia). Both have issues and both find school and life itself can be difficult to cope with. Luckily in their Grade Five class they have the most wonderful teacher Mr Parham. As an aside if I could meet Mr Parham I would like to give him a huge hug and thank him for his kindness towards Josh and Ollie. He does not make a fuss about their autism - he just sets things in place which help both of them cope with their school day and he is always ready to listen. Oh, and unlike Josh, I think if I met him, I might make a comment about liking his red things - marker, socks, tie etc.
Josh and Ollie do have things in common such as their autism and the fact that both of them have lost their very best friend - a truly devastating life change. But I love the way this book shows or tries to show that autism affects kids in very different ways and also the ways these two kids set up their own coping strategies are very different. And another interesting addition to this story is the character of Auntie Olive who is an autistic adult. Ollie's mum is her sister and when Aunty Olive was young she was lost in the bush for several days. This explains why Ollie's mum is so very protective her daughter Ollie.
Both kids, independently of each other, decide the best way to get on in the world is to be kind. Josh is desperate to join one of the many clubs at school but none of them seem like a good fit. He decides to start a club of his own based around kindness. Meanwhile Ollie loves art. She sees a boy in the park who looks lost and alone. Her heart reaches out to him but she is so shy there is no way she could easily talk to this stranger so instead she makes a small sculpture and leaves it on the park bench for him to find.
Here are some text quotes from Small Acts which is a narrative with a few sections in the form of a verse novel:
"Ollie was autistic like him and had been at Emu River as long as Josh, but he'd never really paid her much attention."
"It's okay. I was running with my eyes closed.' The boy smiled. It was like sunshine."
"Why was it so hard to make Ollie smile? Maybe he was only making Ollie smile on the inside. But how would he every know? He needed an outside smile."
"Ollie was more like Josh than he realised. Actually, Ollie was better at doing kind things than he was! Wow. Kindness was ... was contagious. That was a great word. Maybe doing kind acts wasn't only about making people smile; it was also to encourage other people to do kind things as well."
"I don't want to be one of your small acts ... I want to do Small Acts of Kindness, myself."
"... on that day Millie had broken her heart (and) Ollie had decided that she didn't deserve kindness. She didn't deserve friends. She didn't deserve people to like her. And so she would do everything she oculd to make sure nobody showed her kindness again."
If you are reading this book and you have not heard about the television series Bluey you will need to hunt out the episode called
Sticky Gecko (referred to on page 133). Ollie also talks about her favourite book about a witch - The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy.
Small Acts will at times, break your heart, but under the skillful care of Kate Gordon and Kate Foster it will be made whole again by the end of the book not in a fairy tale way but in a very emotionally satisfying way. I highly recommend Small Acts for readers aged 10+. If this book was published in the UK I am certain it would be included on the
Empathy Lab book list. If you read this book with a class your students could write their own lists of kind acts - and it would be even more powerful if they each did a small act of kindness anonymously. It seems obvious but an important part of reading a book about children autism (or any other 'disability') is that the story allows a child reader to enter the world of another child with a different set of life experiences or it shows a child who feels a like Josh or Ollie that they are not alone. If child is struggling with a 'label' like autism I'm not saying this book will make the experience any easier but perhaps it will help to both see the different ways Josh and Ollie experience peer relationships, the way they work hard to understand themselves, each other and others and also the way they bring others together through kindness.
Small Acts is a CBCA 2025 Younger Readers Notable title. I would not be surprised to see it make the shortlist of six.
Companion books:
If you want to read another book about an inspirational teacher try to find this one:
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