Themed Reviews: Back to School

Heading back to school, or going for the first time, can bring a range of emotions in children and teens. We have broken up the titles in this feature into three age groups: 4 to 8, for the littlest students; 8 to 12, for late elementary and middle school; and older students, ages 12 and up. Help get the students in your life ready to head back into the classroom this fall with funny stories like, 8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel [Divided By] 1 Dog = Chaos; or by learning what school was like in the past, with School 100 Years Ago. For the older crowd, novels such as The List, get into the minds of contemporary students as they navigate the academic and social demands of high school.

For more resources to help kick start the new school year check out the new CLCD series about Common Core standards as well as our feature about bullying. Read these articles and search the CLCD database for further resources and titles about school.

http://www.clcd.com/features/th_backtoschool.php

Mom, It's My First Day of Kindergarten

Hyewon Yum

Yum aptly captures the concerns of both parent and child on this major milestone day. In an interesting twist, our narrator, a little boy, eagerly prepares for his first day in "the big kids' school while his mother is reticent and overly cautious. He has a moment of concern when they reach the classroom door, but as soon as his smiling teacher greets him, he knows he is ready for kindergarten. He enters the classroom and makes friends right away. At the end of the day, he finds his mother nervously waiting for him in the school yard. Just as she has calmed her fears, he asks if he can ride the bus the next day. Yum's use of color, proportion, and facial expression deftly expresses the feelings of these two characters. There are no extraneous lines in either the text or the illustrations. Together, they convey the emotions of both parent and child. For example, when the little boy is feeling self-confident and his mother nervous, he is seen in color and much larger than she is. The hug they share after school, when both are "normal" size, is full of warmth. Her positive approach will be appreciated by parents as well as children and will help assuage the first-day jitters of both. 2012, Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan, Ages 4 to 6, $16.99. Reviewer: Sharon Salluzzo (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 9780374350048