Good Deeds, Even Little Ones, Change the World for the Better

One Small Spark: A Tikkun Olam story by Ruth Spiro with illustrations by Victoria Tentler-Krylov; New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House; ©2024; ISBN 9780399-186318; 32 pages; $18.99.

SAN DIEGO – In a big city, a little girl notices that a swing has become unhooked on one side so that it hangs limply.  Another swing has some off both hooks and is lying on the ground. She wants to fix them. With the help of her grandmother, she rehooks the swings.

A small deed, but she has made the world a better place.  Author Ruth Spiro advises her intended audience of children, ages 4-8, to “think of each act of kindness as a little gift, given quietly.”

“You know, your action today changes everything tomorrow,” she counsels on a page on which a mother is pictured pushing her daughter on the repaired swing.

Many other things needing repair catch the little girl’s attention.  A dog is tangled up in its leash.  A birdhouse is falling apart.  There is litter on the playground.  In her classroom, the little girl’s teacher makes a list of the small ways that little hands may improve the world.

A boy in a wheelchair collects books and carries them on his lap to the park where he distributes them to other readers. The little girl offers to share her challah with an adult in the park.

Meanwhile adults also are doing their part.  A bicyclist who fell is tended to by a concerned fellow rider; a man using a walker is assisted by a companion.  Street artists paint flower murals.  A woman gives some money to a person living on the street.

“Imagine everyone gathering sparks, opening their hearts, and repairing our world together,” Spiro exhorts.

Illustrator Tentler-Krylov has a knack for architectural drawings as well as for illustrating the frenetic pace of a big, racially and ethnically diverse city, where everybody seems to be in constant motion.  Colorful birds and flowers grace many drawings.

Children looking at well-drawn pictures will be able to follow different characters through the pages of this delightful and instructive book.

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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World