Humble and Kind: A Children's Picture Book

Award-winning songwriter Lori McKenna's iconic song--as popularized by Tim McGraw--is the perfect basis for a picture book that celebrates family and togetherness.

Hold the door, say please, say thank you
Don't steal, don't cheat, and don't lie
I know you got mountains to climb but
Always stay humble and kind

Humble and Kind is a picture book based on Lori McKenna's song, popularized by Tim McGraw. McKenna later recorded the song on her ninth studio album, The Bird and the Rifle.

Lovingly illustrated by Katherine Blackmore, this gentle picture book tells the story of a family who is striving to remain humble and kind. We follow the family through their daily lives as they find different ways to lend a hand to each other and to their broader community. Full of touching scenes of familial relationships, Humble and Kind will teach adults and children alike the power of family while introducing them to this beautiful song.

McKenna] digs deeply into topics that could devolve into clich in less capable hands.
--NPR

What could easily have been platitudes turn out to be bits of hard-won wisdom...When she gets around to that chorus, to that loving reminder to rise above your basest fears and to 'always stay humble and kind, ' it's a startlingly powerful moment.
--Pitchfork

Author: Lori McKenna
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 03/02/2021
Pages: 32
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.40h x 8.40w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781617758522
Audience: Ages 9-12


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2021
School Library Journal 05/01/2021 pg. 63

About the Author

Home and the people who make it have captivated Lori McKenna for years. Over the last three decades, as she became a wife and mother of five, she has also emerged as one of the most respected, prolific singer-songwriters in popular music. Her 2016 release The Bird and the Rifle netted three GRAMMY nominations, along with Americana Music Association nods--all firsts for McKenna as an artist. Then, she made history: In 2016, she became the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association's Song of the Year two years in a row thanks to cowriting Little Big Town's Girl Crush and penning the number one hit song Humble and Kind. Both songs also clinched back-to-back GRAMMY awards for Best Country Song. In 2017, she became the Academy of Country Music's first female Songwriter of the Year. The Tree, her much-anticipated eleventh studio album, was released on July 20, 2018, on CN Records via Thirty Tigers. Produced by Dave Cobb, The Tree, a 2019 Americana Awards Album of the Year nominee, takes one of McKenna's signature themes--family--and builds a tapestry of experiences she has lived and overheard, been told and dreamed up, to create a stunning ode to life's defining relationships.

Katherine Blackmore (illustrator) is a freelance artist with over twenty-five years experience as an illustrator, animator, and teacher. She has designed holiday products for American Greetings, animated on feature films for Disney, and currently teaches children in the Creative Core Art Program, which she founded. Along with teaching art, Blackmore creates art for kids and is a published illustrator of several children's picture books. She lives in Orlando, Florida, with her husband, Eric, their three cats, and a tortoise named Walter.