bookshelf

THE WILD GUIDE TO STARTING SCHOOL

Name: THE WILD GUIDE TO STARTING SCHOOL
Author: Laura Bunting
ISBN: 9781684646081

by Laura Bunting ; illustrated by Philip Bunting ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2023

Nifty design and good intentions but a likely misfire with intended readers.

bookshelf

Australian Outback animals help kids figure out what to expect on the first day of school.

Step by numbered step this handbook shows what to do—and some wild don’ts—for school newbies. Eat “a healthy, filling breakfast appropriate to your species.” Some of the don’ts may inadvertently give kids ideas (like using sticky tape to “turn…your teacher into a sticky, grumpy mummy”). Who, exactly, is the target audience for this book? A child starting kindergarten—much less preschool—will likely be stymied by a diagram of a teacher’s brain (labels include “prefrontal patience cortex,” “colossal kindness cortex,” and “wisdom ventricle”). Nor will a homesick child be able to decipher the doughnuts that use color-coding to convey various animals’ mixed feelings on the first day or the Venn diagrams depicting the qualities of teachers. Anyone familiar with graphs and diagrams doesn’t need techniques to avoid drop-off sadness or to be reminded not to poop on the blocks or on the teacher, cut their hair with scissors, or eat the crayons. Adult-reader entertainment can be a good add-on, but here it gets in the way of the main event. The pale, soft-edge pastels, in the style of the artwork in the Buntings’ Another Book About Bears (2020), are static but beautifully laid out, especially on the endpapers. The animals are anthropomorphized, though not one of these dazed-looking creatures ever smiles. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Nifty design and good intentions but a likely misfire with intended readers. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023

ISBN: 9781684646081

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kane Miller

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ANOTHER BOOK ABOUT BEARS.
by Laura Bunting ; illustrated by Philip Bunting

bookshelf

ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

bookshelf

Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

bookshelf

TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

bookshelf

With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)