2020 is a year that will be remembered for many different things. Absolutely every aspect of life has been disrupted to some degree. Have you been to the store and seen all of the candy that’s being marketed with Minions: The Rise of Gru on them? While that film will see daylight in the summer of 2021, there’s a fat chance that all of that candy will be around then. Books are something else that’s been put off or feel displaced during these COVID times. In theory, All Welcome Here by James Preller with illustrations by Mary GranPre could be like that, but let’s re-examine our classrooms for this back to school tale.
If your school is like ours then the kids are simple coming into the kitchen or living room and jumping into their elementary classes. For those kindergarten kids it’s a bit different. They’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. They wanted to ride the bus like a big kid now for years, and this year, when they can, it’s not an option. The friend who they’ve wanted to play with since March will still have to remain a meet-them-in-the-park pal and not a classmate.
All Welcome Here takes a look at a typical first day in the classic classroom. The bus, or big yellow monster as we used to call it, is picking up all of the kids in the neighborhood. The kids meet the new principal, who has just a dab of shaving cream his ear. There’s all manner of new directions, kids with new names, things they have to say, places they have to go and a seemingly endless way for kids to play to participate in. That is elementary school and it’s realistically portrayed here.
The book is loaded with colors. There isn’t an inch of paper in any of the pages that’s lacking in movement, activity or energy. The kids and environment are exactly what kids will see when they go back to elementary school. All Welcome Here has a vocabulary that picture book appropriate too. It’s brisk, not too wordy and uses a nice variety is sizes and colors to keep emerging readers engaged.
It’s a very good, good-night book that’s just short enough to where older readers could read it to younger ones without getting bored. There are hundreds of individual things to point out in the book that could help those young ages hammer down pronunciation, colors or sight words. It’s not designed as a sight word book, but there are more than a couple on each page that give your kid a chance to show off. The book also doesn’t have text on each page; this will help entice those shy or reluctant readers who might be intimidated by pre-K or kindergarten books.
The school in the book is also realistic and very diverse. Any kid who picks up the book will find someone to identify with. The cover to All Welcome Here also adds to its presentation in that it’s printed on canvas. When you touch the cover it feels different and when you rub your fingernails against the grain it makes the same sound as when you scratch a lenticular photograph. The brush strokes that are obvious in some of the art also give the book a homegrown feel to it that will rub off on its young readers.
This is a back to school book, during a year when back-to-school is anything but normal. However, this year is the exception. Next year, or the year after that, back to school will be the same with dozens of eager young five-year-olds nervously getting on the bus, going to school and wonder the same things. This book is for them and it’ll still help them this year as they go into the dining room or living room.
All Welcome Here is by James Preller with illustrations by Mary GrandPre and is on Mac Kids.
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