First Grade, Here I Come!

May 11, 2015
In this upbeat story, a ginger-haired boy eagerly imagines all that awaits him in first grade: wowing the teacher with his counting skills, playing with his friends, and more. Johnston’s verses are a mixed bag, exuding an almost stream-of-consciousness energy and playfulness, but sometimes grasping to satisfy their rhymes (“We’ll be space guys in fat suits,/ so bold and brave and big./ Our mascot will be brave and pink./ Oh, he will be a pig”). Walker’s first-graders are sweet and lively throughout (at one point, the narrator surprises his teacher by bringing his boa constrictor, Huggy Boy, in for show-and-tell), and nervous students may still take inspiration from the boy’s over-the-moon enthusiasm. Ages 5–7.

June 1, 2015
A redheaded boy imagines the fun he will have in first grade if he just has five friends to share it with. Johnston's rhyming salute to a young boy's imagination includes some activities that children may do in first grade-snack time, reading, math at the board, parading with cardboard drums, making paper chains, recess, being in a play, visiting the nurse-but the kids seem to spend more time playing than most first graders. Many of the verses force the rhymes, either by choosing words and making them fit (when pretending to be "big" astronauts-"space guys"-they have a "pig" mascot) or by relying on nonsense words or onomatopoeia: "I'll need at least five friends to play / the Rubber Family. / We'll stretch our faces and ourselves / like pretzels. Tee-hee-hee!" And why five friends? It's never really clear why he needs exactly that many, and in the end, even he decides that he'd "rather be / good friends with-EVERYONE!" Walker's artwork does a nice job of capturing the exuberance and activity of a group of first graders (though they don't have the individual personalities of the kids in Carey Armstrong-Ellis' illustrations for The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), written by Deborah Lee Rose), and the boy's five friends are relatively diverse-one Asian child, two black children, two girls. Skip. (Picture book. 4-6)

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August 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 1-Bright illustrations carry this fun rhyming story, following a boy on his first day of first grade as he is determined to make five friends. After crouching and prowling like a tiger, making paper chains, show-and-tell, and even putting on a "neat-o" dragon play, he realizes that five friends would be just fine but being friends with everyone is even better. Wacky rhymes and a universal lesson make this story worth the read. At the same time, the lesson seems thrown in at the end and some of they rhymes seem forced. Those reading aloud will need to practice finding the rhyming cadence. Still, children will appreciate the joyful illustrations and will be inspired to write their own rhymes. VERDICT An upbeat addition to back-to-school collections.-Betsy Davison, Cortland Free Library, NY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016
In a standard first-day-of-school story, a confident new first grader proclaims that he needs five friends and describes all the learning and playing he'll do with them. While the text's rhyme and meter are at times labored, Walker's joyful cartoonlike illustrations depict kids delighting in show-and-tell, snack time, and recess, among other activities also not specific to first grade.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)