OK, welcome everybody. Today we have not one, not two, but FOUR newcomers to class, all showing how awkward it can be to attend a new school, or indeed school for the first time. Let’s look at each in turn, eh?
First we have EMMA’S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (9781605377834), which shows a young girl with the bird’s-nest hair she inherited from her mother, having doubts about going to school. She takes the brave decision to reassure herself in her favourite dressing-up costume, which makes her look like a flamingo of all things. But she loves flamingos, and she needs to be herself. It’s a bit odd that nobody else is having their first day of school, and that we see no staff, but the kids there already with full knowledge of where everything is take to the bizarre sight wonderfully; job done. Don’t come here for logicality (and real responses to a flamingo walking into your form room), but this is pretty and the purpose is served.
On Emma’s left is BENNY GOES TO SCHOOL (9781605377803), part of an established series. Sam is told she cannot take her dog Benny to school, but Benny has other ideas. It’s not strictly about a kid with doubts about how much enjoyment, punishment and everything else the teachers will deliver, but it does make the place a welcome-seeming environment – again, through some daft lapses of reality – so it earns a place at this table.
Still going round, we have OLLIE’S BACK-TO-SCHOOL BEAR (9781398500044) – and there have been three of these before, as well. Ollie runs off the night before her first day in class, when she hears an owl calling outside. Indeed all the animals form a train of characters – and they all go to school, and willingly, but for one shy little bear. Ollie helps the bear, the bear helps Ollie, and she’s fine with the idea of the big, bold building when dawn breaks. Subtly coloured, this looks drab perhaps at first glance, but is definitely charming enough when that’s called for.
Finally we welcome YOUR SCHOOL IS THE BEST! (9780735271647), again a sequel, to a book showing how delightful a cockroach thinks a kid’s birthday party is, much to the lad’s upset. Here the whole roach family smuggle themselves into school, and this is more about the comedy of the bugs’ misassumptions about how great it is for us to have them around than it is about schools. A black sheep of our little family, then, but not one to be ignored. And the lesson is clearly that if you don’t have a flamingo costume, perhaps it’s best to not go for a cockroach one instead. But hey, boldness and making sure you feel at home are to be encouraged.
A diverse class, then, which we like – and yet all get the same strong four stars. I’d recommend buying any or all – and quickly, because there’ll be a test on them shortly.