Manhattan Beach resident Janet Jones was in third grade when she read a biography of Helen Keller and was so inspired that she started a neighborhood collection to raise money for the American Foundation for the Blind, the organization Keller headed.
"I was just mesmerized and awed by who Keller was," Jones said, "and what she had done in the world with so much going against her."
After gathering donations from friends and neighbors, she sent her hard-earned $10 contribution with a letter to Keller, who was in her 70s at the time.
To her surprise, Keller wrote back (through her assistant, Jones noted) -- and the exchange sparked an ongoing correspondence that lasted until Jones was in middle school.
"She was like my north star," Jones said. "We established a rapport. There was no question she knew who I was."
Fast forward more than half a century and Jones is now striving to channel that literary spark into the next generation. Just as a book changed her life, she hopes to inspire today's children toward kindness -- one story at a time.
"I thought, 'What can be done to try to make kindness more prominent for all of us?'" said Jones, who served on the Manhattan Beach Library Commission from 2017 to 2020. "So it just seemed logical to start with books."
Jones' "Kindness for Kids" book project aims to stock Los Angeles County public libraries with a bounty of children's books about kindness, inclusion and empathy.
To launch the initiative, Jones donated $1,000 to buy 60 books for the Manhattan Beach Public Library. The LA County Library Foundation, which helps oversee fundraising and donations for the county's 86 branch libraries, approved the project, and librarians curated the list.
"Thematically, these books are needed, especially in these divisive times," said Andrea Carroll, executive director of the LA County Library Foundation. "We can use more, on top of what's already in the library's collection."
The books include titles such as "Folktales for a Better World" by Elizabeth Laird, "How to Change the World in 12 Easy Steps" by Peggy Tierney and "Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid" by Jeff Kinney.
"To clarify, this isn't a standalone collection," Carroll said. "Any LA County Library cardholder can put a hold on one or more of these books and have it delivered to their home library, where they can pick it up."
Manhattan Beach children's librarian Kaitlin Coulter said the books are a welcome addition to the collection.
"Children learn so much from reading, especially reading with their parents or their caregivers," Coulter said, adding that parents often request books to encourage empathy and kindness in their kids. "Kids reenact so much of what they read and what they see, so the values in a book are going to be unconsciously supported by the parent that they're reading it with."
Experts agree. While research has long confirmed that reading to children helps develop literacy, strengthen attention and build academic readiness, recent studies have shown that kindness-focused books provide additional benefits.
A study published earlier this year on preschoolers in China, for instance, found that children whose parents read them kindness-themed books twice weekly for eight weeks showed significantly higher empathy and pro-social behaviors than children whose parents did not.
"Kindness is an abstract concept for a child, so instilling those ideas through stories is really helpful because it gives them context for what they're supposed to be understanding -especially in today's kind of parenting philosophy, which is more about telling your child what to do, not what not to do," Coulter said. "So you want to start with stories about being kind and give really concrete examples of what that means to a kid."
These first 60 books, Jones said, are just the beginning.
"We're in the infancy here, but we're going to make it to adulthood," Jones said, adding that anyone can donate money to the LA County Library Foundation to buy more books. "This is the start, and I just know it's going to work. I know it's going to make people better people."
It's on its way. The Manhattan Beach Library Commission has already agreed to showcase Kindness for Kids books at the "Story Walk" inside Polliwog Park's botanical garden.
The Neptunian Woman's Club has also expressed interest in partnering with the initiative to launch a preschool storytime program, as well as organize a donation component to purchase more books.
The Manhattan Beach Rotary Club may also feature Kindness for Kids titles in its annual "Rotary Reads" program, which takes place at the start of the school year. The program purchases books for local elementary school libraries, and Rotarians read them to students in pre-K through third grade.
And Jones said she hopes to someday add a furry, costumed "kindness mascot" to the mix.
"We would call him the Kindness Cat," she said. "He could go around to storytimes at every library and be the symbol of kindness."
It's all par for the course for Jones, a longtime philanthropist. A single mother of two grown sons, Jones is a veritable superhero in the South Bay, having volunteered on multiple city boards and led several charitable efforts, most notably the Single Mom Project, which has given more than $100,000 to local single mothers in need since its founding in 2020.
The Kindness for Kids initiative, she said, is just one more way to give back.
"Just as that biography shook up my world, maybe books encouraging compassion could do the same for kids, as well as their parents, grandparents and caregivers," Jones wrote in an essay for the LA County Library Foundation. "My hope is simple: Read a book and become a more thoughtful, compassionate person. I think Miss Keller would be pleased."
To make a monetary donation to buy more Kindness For Kids books, contact Janet Jones at [email protected].