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School's First Day of School



School’s First Day of School
By Adam Rex
Pictures by Christian Robinson
A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2016.

One summer a school is built. School is nice and clean and becomes friends with someone named “Janitor.” Janitor in turn tells School that soon there will be lots of children. School is worried. What will the children do? What will the children say? What will happen? The first day of school comes, and it is just as big of a day as School imagined it would be. There are kids who say things like “I hate school” which makes School feel bad. There are kids who are funny and kids who are shy. School enjoys learning and listening to the kids and teachers. And even though School accidentally has a fire drill, things turn out all right in the end. In fact, School wishes that all the children would come back the next day.

This is a great “back to school” book told from the school building’s perspective. There are loads of kids that are multicultural and diverse (there is even a kid in a wheel chair playing hand games with another girl at recess). And it is clever and funny to think through why the school might like or dislike the comments about “school” that the children make. This is a great read to get the kiddos in the mood for back to school this week!

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