Real kids make a real difference in their communities in this vibrantly photographed chronicle by George Ancona.George Ancona celebrates the joy of kids giving back. In one after-school program, middle-school students mentor and tutor younger children. Via a special partnership, schoolchildren help professionals train assistance dogs for people with disabilities. At a community farm, families plant, grow, and harvest produce for soup kitchens and charities. In these and other examples of volunteering, kids of all ages work together knitting hats and scarves for those who could use warm clothes, packing hot meals to deliver to housebound people, and keeping roadways clean. Young humanitarians reading these accounts may well be inspired to find ways that they can help, too.

George Ancona is the award-winning author and photographer of more than one hundred books for children, many about culture and the arts. Most recently he wrote and photographed It’s Our Garden: From Seeds to Harvest in a School Garden. George Ancona lives in New Mexico.