DEBORAH ABELA’s book The Kindness Project is a story about four kids who overcome their differences and take on the world.
We caught up with Deborah to ask her about the importance of kindness.
What sparked the idea for The Kindness Project?
I had an image of a young girl called Nicolette kidnapping her nanna from a nursing home – AKA Alcatraz. Inspired by my love for my Nanna, I thought it was going to be a light-hearted story about the love between these two, until I realised this was just one part of a story about family and friendship, and how even small acts of kindness can change the world.
What can you tell us about your characters and the challenges they face?
Nicolette, Leaf, DJ and Layla are given a class project to make the world a better place. The trouble is, they don’t like each other…until they discover they have lots in common, including some pretty big worries. They band together when one of them needs their help to create the most magnificent kindness project of all. Nicolette worries about her nanna in the nursing home and maybe having dementia, Leaf worries about his mum who is in hospital, DJ worries about his dad who volunteers to help sick kids overseas and Layla feels unloved when her mum marries her new stepdad.
Why is it important to be kind?
Because kindness is the greatest superpower we have! Being kind to others not only improves our mental health and mood, it makes us feel better. The smallest act of kindness can change someone’s day – a smile, sharing your lunch, asking someone if they’re okay – and it’s infectious! If someone is kind to you, it makes you want to be kind to someone else. Instead of assuming the worst of someone when they’re not being nice, we can stop and think, maybe that person is having a bad day, we all have those. Being kind can change the world. It’s as simple as that.
What are some of the biggest lessons you hope readers take away from reading your book?
That being kind is a superpower.
That we all have worries and sharing them with someone we trust can help them feel lighter.
That sometimes we assume things about people that aren’t true and if we get to know them, we might just realise we have lots in common and even become friends.
That even though we’re only one person, we can change the world.
What was your favourite part of writing this story?
The characters! I loved getting to know them and watch how they began to really like each other, even though at the beginning that seemed impossible! I also LOVED writing in verse, because I got to play with fonts and the way they looked on the page, so that the way a word looks, also tells us what is happening in the story.
Describe this book in three words.
Heartfelt, poignant and uplifting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After training as a teacher, Deb travelled to Africa, where she was trapped in a desert sandstorm, harassed by monkeys and thrown in jail twice. She trained as a teacher before becoming writer/producer of a national children’s TV show at Network TEN. She’s since written 30 internationally published and awarded books, including the ‘Max Remy’ series, her climate change trilogy, Grimsdon, New City and Final Storm and The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee. Her CBCA Notable, The Book of Wondrous Possibilities, is about the power of books to save us when we feel lost. Her latest books are, The Kindness Project, a verse novel about how even the smallest act of kindness can change the world and her picture book, No More Room in the Bed.
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