Compassion at the ES Library

We have a table display full of books on compassion this month to go with our ES school wide core value focus. Well, I should say now half-full because the titles have been in great demand and many are checked out at every check out session.

How do we show compassion in the library?

• We take good care of our books
• We recommend our favorite books to our friends, so they too, can enjoy them
• We respect the book choices of others
• When we read fiction, we try to understand how characters feel
• We make connections between text and our world, other books and ourselves

To see a full list of titles on compassion on our library catalog, you can visit the Visual Tab.

1. Go to the library catalog, library.cacegypt.org. 
2. Choose the elementary school library. 
3. Click on the Visual Tab
4. Navigate to the Core Values button
5. Click on the compassion icon - or any other of interest.

Here are a few of my favorite picture books on the compassion books list. 

PIC Seuss	We all know the story of the lovable elephant who stands up for invisible people on a speck of dust. Horton shows compassion and integrity in protecting all of the little Whos even though he cannot see them and can barely hear them. All he knows is that they're people and therefore worthy of respect. With The Seussical musical on this year, it's a great time to reconnect with Dr. Seuss.
PIC Stead	Winner of the Caldecott Medal in 2011, this is the sweet story of Amos McGee, a patient and loving zookeeper. When he stays home sick with a cold, his animal charges come to take care of him in return. Compassion all around goes around.
PIC Knudsen	One of my favorite books, Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen, is super fun to read aloud because of the different voices and because of the lovable lion. In this story, librarian Mr. McGee forgets the importance of compassion for all library patrons, and the rule-abiding lion gently reminds him by example.
PIC dePaola	Another favorite. In this story, little Tomie teaches his grandfather to walk again after his stroke, just like his grandfather taught him to walk as a baby. This is a beautiful story of love and compassion between generations.
PIC Polacco	Patricia Polacco draws on a family story in the book about a Jewish family who helps their Christian neighbors one year when Christmas was in danger of not coming to town because of a bad scarlet fever epidemic. There are three books by Patricia Polacco on this list and I bet I could find several more to fit. All of her books are gorgeously illustrated and heart-felt.

Since December is a short month, we will continue to focus on compassion until the break. That's fitting because the world needs a lot of compassion right now.