Horus's Horrible Day (First Graders from Mars)

Delighted to start first grade, Horus is dismayed to discover that there are no slime tables, no nap mats, and no snacks, and after being put in the Beta reading group instead of the Alpha, Horus longs to be back in Martiangarten.

K-Gr 2-It's the first day of school on Mars and Horus is off to first grade. He had loved martiangarten with snooze mats, snacks, and the slime table. However, he quickly discovers that first grade is very different and he decides he doesn't like it and he doesn't want to go back. His mother returns her protesting child to school the next day and this time he meets a new student who has the same reaction he had. As Horus begins to reassure her, he forgets about his own doubts and offers to help her through her first day. First grade has become much more inviting for the two new friends. The colorful cartoon drawings complement this comic sci-fi tale with its flying cups, thinking capsules, and waving tentacles. The nonhuman students are done in assorted colors from green to purple, and the teacher, Ms. Vortex, is really a standout with eyes that are literally in the back of her head. These creatures don't just learn the right answers in math-they actually form them with their bodies. An entertaining addition to collections that need more stories about the possible anxieties and excitement of the first day of school.

Carol Schene, Taunton Public Schools, MA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Young Martians start elementary school in this reassuring comedy, the debut of the First Graders from Mars series, in which the hero longs for the good old days of "martiangarten." Horus, a froggy-looking child with prehensile tentacles on his chartreuse head, becomes confused in his new classroom. "Where are the snooze mats? Where are the snacks?" he asks. "First graders are too big for those things," scoffs a reptilian girl with lilac hair. Horus's pink-and-green-spotted teacher (who "had eyes in the back of her head. And in the front. And on the sides") purses her lips with concern. Corey (You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer!) believably depicts Horus's embarrassment and his conflict with his mother, who literally drags him to school the next day. While the author doesn't examine Horus's confident classmates, she shows how Horus encourages another scared student to be brave. Teague (How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?) sets the action amid a Seussian landscape of spiky mountains, purple volcanoes and green anemone with eyeballs on their stalks. His bug-eyed, rubbery-limbed aliens perform familiar tasks in comical ways (Horus reads upside-down, balancing on his own face). Like Dan Yaccarino's First Day on a Strange New Planet, this universal drama takes a shrewd but optimistic look at first grade. Ages 5-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-7. The familiar story of a first-grader's first-day-of-school anxiety gets a cosmic boost in this title set on Mars. Horus, a husky, green Martian with tentacles, is excited about first grade, until he struggles through his first day and discovers how different everything is from Martiangarten--no slime tables, no snooze mats, no snacks. Even worse, obnoxious, smart-mouth classmate Tera undermines his every effort to adjust. Horus vows never to return to school, but the arrival of another young Martian who's even more terrified helps Horus face his fears. The reassuring, simple text, printed in large type suitable for beginning readers, is filled with hilarious space terms standing in for familiar school phrases, and Teague's wonderfully imagined illustrations extend the galactic jokes and make Horus and his classmates irresistible. A great, lighthearted choice for nervous students, who will look forward to a sequel. Gillian Engberg
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