Just One Gift: A Thoughtful Classroom Story told through Poetry for Kids (Ages 8-12) by Linda Sue Park and Robert Sae-Heng has a unique format to teach the children of the story, and the reader, acts of kindness and selflessness. Inspired by a form of Korean poetry, Park takes a middle school classroom and its students and gives them a task (well, their teacher does). They must pick a slip of paper from a hat. It will have Family, Friend, or ? (question mark) on it. Then, they must make a list of people that fit the category, then pick one name and theoretically give them a realistic gift. However, it has to be something they would want, but have never asked for. 
Simple enough on the surface, but of course, the children have questions, the teacher answers, and as they write in journals, talk in class, and brainstorm they learn about critical thinking, kindness, and how to make something realistic even if it would have to happen “in the future.” The ideas the kids come up with are neat, fun and creative. The results make the children think about things, think about people and learn about themselves. There were a few illustrations added, but since I was reading it via a reader’s copy (though it is out) not all of the black and white images were available. And while researching the book, I learned that it is a companion to The One Thing You’d Save where a class of middle schoolers answer the hought provoking idea, “What would you save if your house was on fire?” (On the TBR list now.)
There are two parts that fit the cbr18bingo Bingo Steal category. First, I “stole” the book off the pile of reader copies (while it was free for the taking, I just grabbed and ran like a thief in the night). Second, once some of the kids hear the cool ideas others came up with, they want to “steal” their ideas and have a redo on the assignment.
