First Grade Dropout

By Audrey Vernick

Clarion Books, 2015. Picture book.

The first grade narrator of this book has decided he cannot go back to school because he made a mistake so big that he can never recover from the embarrassment of it. After briefly considering time travel and elaborate disguises, clearly his only real choice is to drop out of school in the first grade, never see any of his friends again, and stay home and work on his jump shot for the next decade or so. With great comic timing, the terrible incident is eventually revealed. Anyone who has survived an embarrassing situation will relate to this first grader’s agony and appreciate the idea that things are not usually as bad as they seem and can even be incredibly funny.

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