Title: Lolli and Pop Find Kindness

Author: Carolyn Snelling

Illustrator: Izzy Bean

Publisher/Year: Carpenter’s Son Publishing/2016

Series: The Fruit of the Spirit

If you’ve read my book The Peddler’s Bed, then you know it’s all about kindness. Kindness, often along with friendship, is a theme that shows up in most of my stories. It might take center stage or it might be more subtle, but it’s in there somewhere.

A terrific example of a story that puts kindness front and center is Lolli and Pop Find Kindness by author Carolyn Snelling and illustrator Izzy Bean. Lolli and Pop Find Kindness is the first of nine titles in the Fruit of the Spirit series. “The Fruit of the Holy Spirit is a biblical term that sums up nine attributes of a Christian life according to Paul in his Letter to the Galatians.” (Wikipedia) The other attributes are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, all qualities that children should learn more about.

In Lolli and Pop Find Kindness, we meet a little girl named Lolli who is thrilled to meet a new puppy, whom she aptly names Pop. It’s not long before she worries that she will have to give Pop up because her father may be allergic. She prays that she can keep him anyway, despite her father’s suffering. It’s only through helping an old man, by returning to him a treasured lost key, that Lolli learns what it means to be kind.

Early readers will find this to be a sweet, engaging story with bright, fun illustrations that are reminiscent of animation, and I could easily see this book series as an animated one on television. What will Lolli and Pop and their friends learn next? We’ll have to wait for the next book to find out!