Product Description

It can when she’s Ordinary Mary—an ordinary girl from an ordinary school, on her way to her ordinary house—who stumbles upon ordinary blueberries. When she decides to pick them for her neighbor, Mrs. Bishop, she starts a chain reaction that multiplies around the world. Mrs. Bishop makes blueberry muffins and gives them to her paperboy and four others—one of whom is Mr. Stevens, who then helps five different people with their luggage—one of whom is Maria, who then helps five people—including a man named Joseph who didn’t have enough money for his groceries—and so on, until the deed comes back to Mary.

It’s a feel-good story that inspires and celebrates a world full of ordinary deeds!

Emily Pearson is the co-author of Fuzzy Red Bathrobe: Questions from the Heart for Mothers and Daughters. Emily and her two children live in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is her first children’s book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67579 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From the Inside Flap
Can one good deed from an ordinary girl change the world?

It can when she's Ordinary Mary--an ordinary girl from an ordinary school, on her way to ordinary house--who stumbles upon ordinary blueberries. When she decides to pick them for her neighbor, Mrs. Bishop, she starts a chain reaction that multiplies around the world. Mrs. Bishop makes blueberry muffins and gives them to her paperboy and four others--one of whom is Mr. Stevens, who then helps five different people with their luggage--one of whom is Maria, who then helps five people--including a man named Joseph who didn't have enough money for his groceries--and so on, until the deed comes back to Mary.

It's a feel-good story that inspires and celebrates a world full of ordinary deeds!

About the Author
Emily Pearson is the co-author of Fuzzy Red Bathrobe: Questions from the Heart for Mothers and Daughters. She has worked for years as a professional actress both on the stage and in television and film. Most recently she received a double nomination for Best Actress in a Musical by the Connecticut Drama Critics' Circle. This is her first children's book.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Ordinary Mary was so very ordinary that you'd never guess she could change the world. This ordinary kid? She did! She changed the world!

One ordinary day, skipping on her way from her ordinary school to her ordinary house, she passed an ordinary vacant lot filled with ordinary bushes growing ordinary berries--ordinary blue and juicy, luscious lovely berries.

Well, Ordinary Mary picked the ordinary berries and brought them in a big brown bowl to Mrs. Bishops porch.

What? Left berries in a big brown bol on Mrs. Bishops porch?

That sneaky kid! She did!

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Book
This is a fabulous book. If you embrace the philosophies of service learning and making a difference, and it is important to you that your child or classroom of children understand and become civically responsible individuals, then this book is a great tool. It is an outstanding story for children from kindergarten through fifth grade (although some explaining and reviewing will be necessary for the younger children). Even though it is a story/picture book, the older children will enjoy it as well.

Why is everyone white?
This is a book with a lovely message. One child has the power to change the world for the better through a simple act of kindness. The story describes the happiness and good deeds that spread across the planet in a chain reaction of goodness. The story is well done, but the illustrations are not. Why is every person white in the chain of good deeds? Even when children from every contintent are pictured they're all white! This is a major flaw in an otherwise worthwhile story.

Gets Message Across!
This is a wonderful book to teach the meaning of paying it forward with kindness. My third grade students absolutely loved the book! They were amazed that one bowl of blueberries could make so many people happy. One person can make a difference!!