A lovely colleague, who also happens to teach my 7 year old, read a book to her class the other day, thrust it into my hands, and urged me to share it. Thank you Shauna. The book is called Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed and was written by Emily Pearson, and illustrated by Fumi Kosaka.

This is not a new book, it was published in 2002, nor is its theme a new one. The concept of paying it forward gained exposure in recent times with the Kevin Spacey/Helen Hunt film Pay it Forward in 2000 (is it just me or are you shocked that ‘recent’ movie is now almost 15 years old?) and the idea of doing good deeds for others, in particular those you don’t know, has been around a lot longer.

“In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody.” Ralph Waldo Emerson-1841

In 1916, Lily Hardy Hammond wrote, “You don’t pay love back; you pay it forward.”

However, for the students I’ve read the book to this week, the idea was new, and wow, did they embrace it! Ordinary Mary sets off a chain reaction through a random act of kindness that changes the lives of millions in this story. My students were fascinated by this idea, we sat and talked for a long time about people having choices about how they act, and that peoples actions can really have an effect on others. Hearing kids discuss the phrases ‘ripple effect’ ‘pay it forward’ ‘random act of kindness’ and the conversation that followed was rich…and often humorous!

“That happened to me once when I was in a bad mood, and then my friend let me have one of his Pokemon cards, and I was happy and so I was nicer to my little sister.”

“Once when my Mum told me off I was sad but then my Dad was really nice to me and I felt better and I went back and talked to my Mum and then she was happy again, so then at dinner she was really happy and the next day Mum was friendly to her sister and her sister was in a good mood because sometimes my Mum is really mean to her but not this day so maybe she was nice to five people then.”

I’d encourage anyone who wants stimulating conversation to share the book with others, I promise it won’t be dull. I wonder what ordinary deed YOU do, and what extraordinary effect it will have on others…