THE WILD GUIDE TO STARTING SCHOOL

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.