Tibili, el niño que no queria ir a la escuela

by Marie Leonard

Tibilí es un niño africano de seis años que pasa el día riendo, hasta que su mamá le dice que tiene que ir a la escuela, y Tíbilí no quiere ir... hasta que encuentra un motivo que le hace cambiar de opinión. A partir de 5 años.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Kris Dersch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like books that remind us of how universal our struggles are while celebrating our differences. My kid has been talking for weeks about how he doesn't want to go back to school so it was nice to share with him Tibili's story as a reminder that that feeling is very common but school is important and a privilege, with a funny little tale that is relatable, unique, and not at all preachy.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love children’s books by authors from other countries – they take away my ability to predict the story, and I am so often happily surprised by the unexpected twists and turns and endings. Marie Léonard’s Tibili, The Little Boy Who Didn’t Want to Go to School, is no exception. The author is French, but the book is set in Africa, where Tibili, the boy who laughs at everything stops laughing when he learns he must soon start school (Andrée Prigent’s illustration of the non-laughing Tibili made me laugh!). Tibili doesn’t want to learn to read and write words on a chalkboard, he wants to read the sky like his grandfather, and read the dust on the road that shows the tracks of animals who cross there each day. These statements are one of the twists in the story – they made me stop and wonder about the concept of reading – we might be learning to read words, but I think there are many other “texts” in our world that go unnoticed. As a Media Specialist, I am concerned with teaching information literacy. The sky and the dust are two pieces of information that I hadn’t considered before. Tibili made me laugh and made me think, and this book took me through several twists and turns to a very satisfying ending.