Thursday, August 25, 2011

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!

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