Starting School for the Very First Time: Kindergarten Diary

My five year old starts Kindergarten next week. So I've made a point of finding books related to school to read to her just to get her a little more used to the idea. We found Kindergarten Diary (HarperCollins Publishers, 2010) the other day at the library and barely a day has passed when someone hasn't requested this one be read aloud. This book was written by Antoinette Portis, the same author as the best selling Not a Box so we knew it was bound to be cute and funny, too.

This book presents like a diary, the first 'entry' dated September 1st (the next day being the first day of school). Annalina wants to return to preschool and has no interest in starting kindergarten. She has all the typical fears and worries of a new kindergartener. I had to laugh at the entry for the first day of school, "The teacher made all the grown-ups leave", accompanied by an illustration of some very sad looking parents staring through the window into the classroom. Although I have to admit I can totally picture myself doing this next week...

A fun, lighthearted way of helping to introduce your child to what Kindergarten might be like, Portis's accompanying illustrations run along the same lines. She uses mixed media, including photographs and illustration to create interesting visuals that are very appealing to young readers.

Happy Back-to-School!

Starting with Chapter Books: Junonia

Recently my oldest daughter turned 5. We'd been talking for a while about starting a chapter book. Then we found the newly released Junonia (HarperCollins Publishers, 2011) by Kevin Henkes. Henkes is a favourite author around here so we went for it.


My daughter isn't reading independently yet (and this isn't a beginning reader chapter book, either) so I read aloud one or two chapters to her each night before bed. I was amazed that 1. she could sit still long enough to listen without accompanying pictures and 2. that she could answer comprehension questions and discuss the chapters with me after we'd finished each one. A common characteristic of Henkes' writing is his strong development of his characters and settings. I think this was quite helpful to my daughter. While there were very few pictures in the book she could easily use the colourfully written descriptions to visualise the story in her head.

Junonia is a story about family, friendship and discovering oneself. On a yearly trip to Florida with her family, Alice is about to turn 10. She has one goal on this trip: to find herself a rare junonia shell. Amidst her desire to fulfill her quest Alice discovers important things about herself and how she has grown, as an individual, a daughter and a friend.

We both enjoyed reading our first chapter book together so much that we've started a new bedtime ritual and we've started our second novel together. What are your favourite childhood chapter books?