ONCE UPON AN ORDINARY SCHOOL DAY

This import pays tribute to inspirational teachers everywhere with a tale of an “ordinary” child whose dormant imagination blooms in the classroom. When a new teacher strides in, juggling a gramophone and an armload of records—and bringing color to the previously all-sepia illustrations—the class reacts skeptically at first. But his invitation to let the music make mental pictures falls on variously fertile ground. While some children fall asleep or read comics, and others make up typical adventure tales, the “ordinary” child’s drab, routine world bursts into a series of wordless spreads. There he visits teeming tropical climes on elephant-back, dives through schools of exotic fish, soars with the birds and that night (having properly thanked the teacher after school and heard the exciting words, “See you tomorrow”) dreams “extraordinary” dreams. Young readers (or teachers, for that matter) wondering what school is really for may get a clue here. (Picture book. 6-8)