Loving school

MARTHA BUNNY LOVES SCHOOL by Clara Vulliamy. Albert Whitman, 2013.

Martha Bunny's first day of school has arrived. But her baby brother bunnies want to go along (packed in her new backpack), so Martha has to find a way to make them happy while she is at school.

Hanging out with boys

FRIENDS WITH BOYS by Faith Erin Hicks (First Second, February 2012, courtesy of NetGalley) combines the very realistic story of Maggie's first year in high school with a nifty ghost story. Maggie has been home schooled all her life. Her first day of high school is both exciting and terrifying at turns. It also means having friends outside of her rambunctious brothers to whom she is just one of the guys. Maggie manages to make some new friends and begins to see how different her brothers' lives are outside of their house. Add to this coming of age story, the story of the ghost who has followed, not exactly haunted, Maggie for years and the GN format, and you have a book certain to pull in a wide array of readers. <653>

First Day Books

Here in Texas, school started today. It seems a good idea to offer some great picks for that first day back read aloud.





For older students, how about an alphabet book of collective nouns? Here is A ZEAL OF ZEBRAS (Chroncile Books 2011) with a pandemonium of parrots and an ostentation of peacocks to name but a few of the collective nouns used for groups of animals. Add in a troubling of goldfish and a bale of turtles and let the discussion on how these collective nouns came to be used for these species roll on. <420>



Kate Messner's SEA MONSTER'S FIRST DAY with illustrations by Andy Rash (Chronicle 2011) is another perfect choice for those first days, especially in younger grades where there is the palpable fear of fitting in. Starting school is tough when you are a seam monster who does not fit into the other "schools." However, sea monster strikes just the right chord as he learns how to be part of the school. Humor, as always, helps to dispel some of the fear, and Messner provides plenty of humor in this back to school story. <421>