Kindness is a Golden Heart

Kindness is a Golden Heart walks young readers and their caregivers through a typical day at home with a toddler: breakfast, music time, shared reading, outdoor play, dinner prep, and bedtime. Each scene represents a form of kindness between a parent and child that is tangible for this target audience: quality time and attention between adult and child, caring for one another when hurt or scared, and offering help with family duties.

Jessica Kluthe’s subtly rhyming text is appropriately accessible and sincere. Kluthe’s use of metaphor is sure to touch the heart strings of children and adults alike.

Charlene Chua uses a gender neutral golden yellow hue throughout the illustrations, clearly playing off the title of the book; however, the use of this yellow colour also holds symbolic significance as Chua’s depiction of the child character is gender ambiguous. The three characters that Chua creates are charming and very likeable. Just as the adult cares for the child, the child also passes along this learned kindness to the family cat. The eye contact, smiles, and close physical proximity depicted between the characters demonstrate the kind and loving basis of this ethnically diverse and solo-parent family.

Kindness is a Golden Heart is a sweet book for young readers to share a quiet moment with their caregiver and to learn some simple vocabulary around the topic of kindness. The board book format makes it perfect to toss in the diaper bag for reading at any moment. This would be a great book for gifting at a baby shower or a first birthday party.