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First Day, Hooray!by Nancy Poydar Ages 4-8 |
K-Gr3-A satisfying exploration of the anxiety and joy experienced before and during the first day of school. The focus is not just on young Ivy Green but on the bus driver, janitor, teacher, and principal of her school. On the day before school starts, each one is shown getting ready-buying shoes, going over the bus route, polishing floors, or making name tags. The book artfully moves on to the night before jitters and pre-bed activities, followed by a segment of nerve induced dreams. Mr. Masters, the principal, has a "pajamas-on dream," while Ivy moves from a "no-lunch dream" to a "which-door dream" Then, with the crack of dawn, the sun beams down on a day in which everything is as it should be. The clever text flows naturally from child to adult experiences, from morning to night, and from excited energy to reflection. As such, it is wonderfully balanced, made even more successful by the complementary illustrations, which are soft and friendly. The animated cartoon characters are brought to life while the town, with houses built almost on top of each other, is clearly a close-knit community. One challenge to this book is that ideas are often oblique rather than obvious, and children will need to use visual and textual clues to figure out the events and characters. How refreshing! -Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI Copyright 1999Cahners Business Information. — School Library Journal