Beginning School - Hardcover

Smalls, Irene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0382393287 ISBN 13: 9780382393280

Publisher: Silver Pr, 1996

Synopsis

When Alicia makes a new friend and becomes involved in the fun activities of an integrated kindergarten, she soon forgets her former anxieties about beginning school

About this title

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.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The first day of school, with all its attendant excitement, is presented from the point of view of Alicia, an African-American girl who joins a multiracial class. Smalls (Father's Day Blues, 1995, etc.) includes many of the activities children can expect in the first few months of kindergarten: drawing letters and coloring shapes, singing songs, watching a snake shed its skin, birthday parties, Halloween, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Three Kings Day, and the Chinese New Year are all presented. Alicia makes friends; by book's end, all the students are ready for vacation, while enjoying school and looking forward to coming back after the break. Goffe's watercolors reflect the happy, sweet tone of the text in this serviceable book for family and classroom. (Picture book. 4-7) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Silver Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0382393287
• ISBN 13: 9780382393280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1
• Illustrator: Goffe Toni