NARWHAL VS. KINDERGARTEN

A young narwhal struggles on his first day at school but soon realizes he isn’t the only one floundering.

Things are off to a rough start when Hugo boards the school bus for kindergarten: His tusk is so long that he must stick his head out the window to fit in his seat. Problems persist at the crosswalk when he accidently gooses the crossing guard with his tusk and then in the classroom when he knocks over a classmate’s block tower—again, with his tusk. The story’s humor, the result of seamless interactions between cartoon-style art and clever text, isn’t wholly reliant on slapstick mishaps stemming from Hugo’s lacking bodily awareness; the goosed crossing guard is—wait for it—a goose, and endpapers include classroom posters showcasing authors Tomie deKoala (an anthropomorphic koala) and Leo Lionni (no name alteration necessary for this leonine writer). As the story progresses, the humor expands to show that Hugo isn’t alone in his efforts to succeed in kindergarten. Comedic scenes set on the playground depict an elephant calf’s sneeze drenching a classmate, monkey bars stymying a snake, and a nervous octopus accidentally squirting ink on the merry-go-round. Such mishaps are eventually resolved as the students form a caring and collaborative classroom community, nurtured by their patient orangutan teacher, Ms. Hairington, and the hilarious Coach Cooper (a rooster), whose lack of lips prevents him from blowing a whistle.

A laugh-out-loud, fish-out-of-water, first-day-of-school read.