Beginning School [Hardcover]

Irene Smalls (Author), Toni Goffe (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996 | Age Level: 3 and up

Designed to allay a child's fears about beginning school, this warm and reassuring book shows and tells children what school will be like, following a young girl through her first day of kindergarten.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Setting out to reassure apprehensive kindergarteners-to-be, Smalls's wordy read-aloud offers a rather prosaic account of a class's activities during the first days and months at school. The spotlight here is on Alicia, a good-natured African American child. In a typically flat passage, readers learn that "Alicia wasn't so sure she would have any fun in school. But her mother had told her she was a big girl now. Alicia knew that being big meant going to school." Alicia does just fine, easily making friends and kindly reaching out to a forlorn classmate who is having difficulty adjusting. After closely following the class's schedule for the initial days, Smalls (who has the teacher read the kids one of her previous books, Jonathan and His Mommy) recaps some highlights of the fall, among them a visit to a museum, class pictures and a Halloween party. On the closing spread, Smalls covers all multicultural bases with a cursory rundown of the holidays celebrated in class: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Puerto Rican Festival of the Three Kings and Chinese New Year. The busy, consistently smiling youngsters in Goffe's cartoon art have more personality, and they convincingly pass along the message that school is definitely okay. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-K?Alicia queries her mother about what will happen during her first day of kindergarten and what her mother will do while she is gone all day. The lengthy text gives a practically moment-by-moment description of the first and second days with shorter chapters about the third day, second month, and holiday time. While numerous common concerns about school are addressed in a reassuring manner, there is too much information for the intended audience. Drawings of the integrated class are expressive and interpret, but do not expand the text. A rather pedantic offering.?Virginia Opocensky, formerly at Lincoln City Libraries, NE
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 1 pages
• Publisher: Silver Pr (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0382393287
• ISBN-13: 978-0382393280
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,544,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on setting your child's expectations, November 2, 1999

By 

H. Spraggins (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginning School (Hardcover)

This is one of the best books I have seen that presents a clear, accurate, diverse picture of schooling.

Alicia and Robert present varied pictures of the school acclamation process. Alicia is outgoing and readily embraces learning new things. Still, though, she is somewhat apprehensive about making new friends and openly cries when she scraps her knee during recess. Robert, on the other hand, is cautious, reserved and does not immediately like school. Still, though, Robert finds a good friend in Alicia and understands he does not have to "break out of shell" so soon. In the end, Robert enjoys school and Alicia looks forward to going back to school after the holiday break.

I use the story characters in conversations with my daughter to gauge how school went on a particular day, "What kind of day did you have? Was today like a Robert day or an Alicia day?"