(I normally keep track of the books I read on my Creative Pursuits blog, but I'm behind on that blog as well and felt this story was worth mentioning on here.)
After reading glowing reviews of this book on two different blogs, I decided I wanted to read it. There was a huge waiting list at my library, but I got in line. I'll admit I was a little sad at first when I got the notice that it was ready. In December I like to read Christmas books after all. However, I picked it up and read it in one afternoon. It's juvenile fiction, but very well written. I loved it and think it should be required reading for all middle-school students. I'm going to have my two middle-schoolers read it! Anyway, one of the teachers in the story shares a precept with his class each month of the school year and then he asks his students to share their own precepts with him via a postcard during the summer. I wanted to remember his precepts, so I'm recording them here and I hope you'll find them uplifting as well:
"When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind." -Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
"Your deeds are your monuments." -Egyptian tomb inscription
"Have no friends not equal to yourself." -Confucius
"Audentes fortuna iuvat/Fortune favors the bold." -Virgil
"No man is an island, entire of itself." -John Donne
"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." -James Thurber
"Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much." -Blaise Pascal
"What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful." -Sappho
"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." -John Wesley's Rule
"Just follow the day and reach for the sun!" -The Polyphonic Spree, "Light and Day"
I also want to share a couple of quotes the principal shared with the students:
"Shall we make a new rule of life...always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?" -The Little White Bird, JM Barrie
"It was at moments such as these that Joseph recognized the face of God in human form. It glimmered in their kindness to him, it glowed in their keenness, it hinted in their caring, indeed it caressed in their gaze." -Under the Eye of the Clock, Christopher Nolan
And last, but not least I want to share the main character's personal precept:
"Everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their life because we all overcometh the world." -August Pullman, Wonder, RJ Palacio
By the way, I think this is a great read for December. What was Christ's message? Be kind to others. Yep, this book goes well with that message.
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