[close] Tomorrow is the first day of school and everyone is getting ready for Little Cliff's big day. But Little Cliff doesn't want to go to school, especially if it means leaving behind toys, home, and family. To him, school is all about "work, work, work" and being "quiet, quiet, quiet." Good thing Mama Pearl will make sure he gets to school on time. Sensitive and gently humorous, this irresistible story of first-day jitters proves that, though sometimes scary, growing up can also be fun, fun, fun!

Clifton L. Taulbert and E. B. Lewis collaborated previously on Little Cliff and the Porch People, which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, described as "brimming with an appreciation for familiar, homespun pleasures." [close]