School’s First Day of School, imagination exercise for Pre-K thru 2nd grade

School’s First Day of School is one of those children’s books that really speak to kids. It channels their inner joy, paranoia and imagination about things that adults take for granted. For example, what if the building that you spent at least 35 hours a week in was alive? That’s the premise behind School’s First Day of School with a story by Adam Rex with illustrations by Christian Robinson.

Pay attention, because the story actually starts before the first page of the book. It shows men and women building a school. They’ve got diggers, cranes and a dozer moving around a halfway completed building that looks like it will become a school. That happens on the two cover pages of the book. It’s only when you turn the pages after that, when the story starts that readers will actually see that the school has personality.

Again, pay attention, because the doors to the school are happy. They’re smiling. 2 out of 3 adults who I showed School’s First Day of School to did not notice that the school evoked an emotion. At different parts of the book it’s grinning, sometimes emotionless and, on a couple occasions, it’s sad. The kids that I showed the book to were 3 for 3 in noticing that the school had a face. This is a great example of a children’s book really understanding how to speak to its indented audience.

When the school year starts the school is quite optimistic. It likes its name, enjoys the company of the janitor who cleans it and is comforted by their conversations. The janitor informs the school that all sorts of kids will be here soon and that they’ll continue their conversations later in the afternoon.

However, some of the students don’t like school. The school starts to doubt if it’s really a good place. As the day goes on the school sees (and enjoys) some of the children’s behavior-like the kid who told the funny joke that made the other kid squirt milk out of his nose. The school also goes on to learn things from the kindergarten class and has a couple of kids that it really likes.

When the school and the janitor meet up again all of the kids have been picked up and they’re reminiscing about the day. The school realizes that it’s not the janitor’s house and that it’s quite lucky to be a school.

School’s First Day of School thinks like a kid. Pre-K students through first grade will use their imagination to infuse personality in their school too. Our second grader knows that buildings can’t have emotions, but he still liked pretending that his school could think. His brother, who is in kindergarten; got big saucer eyes when he first realized that the title character in the book was also the narrator.  As a good night book it’s a little long to read twice, but kids will really it enjoy it once. After we read it once we give it to them to look at the pictures or practice sight words.

The art in the book has a fun, timeless appeal that will be enjoyable to any audiences. Fans of Last Stop on Market Street will recognize Robinson’s art style, which is comforting and has an old school vibe, without being something that kids won’t identify with.  Author/Illustrator Adam Rex is one of our children’s favorite’s with How This Book Was Made. On that book he was the illustrator, with School’s First Day of School he’s the author, but our kids still recognized his name when I pointed it out to them.

School’s First Day of School is a slow burn, good night book. It’s not the kind of laugh out loud funny book that you read for giggles. Rather, it’s the observational, pleasant book that makes children think about things far after they’ve finished reading them. It’s also just silly enough to keep active kids hooked during storytime.