The You Kind of Kind

What does kindness look like? This boisterous picture book by West (the stage name of activist, drag queen, and singer-songwriter Andrew Levitt, founder of the Nina West Foundation) aims to clarify. A light-skinned youth with bright red hair, large eyes, and an enormous grin directly addresses readers: “Nina here.... your lead adventurer” in a search for “kindness in the wild.” After slipping into a multihued outfit that makes the narrator feel “remarkabus and wonder-filled,” Nina encourages readers to observe the different ways people exhibit kindness, for example when they say hello (“the Salutation Exclamation”) and make one another laugh (“the Perpetual Jokester”). And when a bullying situation arises, Nina transforms into a shimmering entity to diffuse the situation with a strident “Be Kind!” Shifting type sizes, made-up words, and Evans’s bold and visually busy digital artwork, which portrays individuals with varying body types and skin tones, fittingly align with the book’s laudable advice to “GO BIG!” and “BE YOU!” Ages 4–8. (Oct.)