ARE WE FLOODING CHILDREN'S BOOKSHELVES WITH TOO MUCH VIRTUE?

  

Kindness Fatigue in the Kids' Section

 

In October 2024, Cheeky Kiki Learns to Be Kind by Kim Burns arrived, adding one more book to the ever-growing list of children's titles extolling the virtues of being kind. In 2025 alone, we’ve seen Nuggets of Hope: Cultivate Kindness by Kim Lengling and two titles by Egor Klopenko — The Book of Kindness, a poetic 36-page journey with illustrations by Ksenia Panteleeva, and The Great Magician, which also spins kindness into its plot. All these books are well-intentioned. But as a reader, a parent, and someone observing this literary trend, I can’t help but wonder — are we overdoing it?

Kindness has become a keyword in children’s publishing. It’s the new "magic," the new "adventure," the new "friendship." However, unlike those more open-ended themes, kindness in these books often comes packaged as a conclusion, rather than a discovery. The structure is predictable: a child is rude or selfish, something teaches them a lesson, and by the end, they’re glowing with goodness. Rinse, repeat.

The problem isn’t the value itself — the world needs more compassion, and children should grow up with empathy. But when every second book begins to sound like a moral sermon — often in pastel colors and sugary rhymes — we risk turning kindness into noise. Even children can experience fatigue when the message starts to feel forced.

Additionally, genuine kindness isn’t always sweet. It can be inconvenient, confusing, and even lonely. That’s something most of these books don’t address. Most kindness stories avoid complexity to keep things clear, assuming young readers need everything explained simply. But children aren’t one-dimensional. They can handle nuance, humor, and even contradiction. Why not tell a story where kindness is misunderstood or where it takes courage to stand alone?

There’s another risk: performative empathy. In a time when adult social media relies on “feel-good” content and corporate compassion, that same vibe influences what we give to kids. These books might be more soothing for the adults reading aloud than truly eye-opening for the child listening. They make us feel like we’re raising better humans. But moral lessons, no matter how lovely the illustrations, can’t replace modeled behavior or genuine conflict resolution.

This overproduction also speaks to the anxiety of modern parenting. Surrounded by rising violence, bullying, digital distractions, and divisive politics, we reach for the antidote — kindness — and serve it in digestible doses. But by doing so repeatedly, in similar forms, we forget that stories are not just vehicles for values. They are places for imagination, messiness, mischief, contradiction — everything children experience.

What we need now is a shift. Not fewer books about kindness, but better books — ones where kindness isn’t the answer to every problem, but a question explored. Stories where characters aren't "fixed" by being kind, but where they stumble, try, and grow. Books that don’t instruct, but invite reflection. Because true kindness doesn’t come from reading about it again and again — it comes from moments when no one’s watching.

So maybe it’s time to give the word a break. Let kids fall in love with stories first, and let the values emerge naturally and quietly. That’s where kindness belongs — not just on the cover, but between the lines.