Historical October 1985 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Kids don’t go back to school anxious to learn more about fractions or the Boston Tea Party or even to show off their new shoes and colorful spiral notebooks. More than anything, they simply want to be back with other kids.
No matter how miserable, glorious, or even mediocre the experience of school is, the most important thing is sharing it with peers. Will the misfits fit in this semester? Will the stars still shine? Will best friends only be second best? How much can a person change in a mere two months? Questions like these are explored and answered in a variety of books for young readers. Fred’s First Day is for the beginner reader, or, simply for the beginner. Fred always seems too new at anything to do it right—playing with Baby Bob, climbing trees, building model planes.
His first day at nursery school ends a lot better than it starts. Beginning readers will laugh at Fox’s mistakes and friends in Fox All Week. Fox learns a couple of lessons the hard way. Pretending to be sick to stay home from school may not always be a good idea. Throwing away an icky lunch may not be either. Cory has just moved to a New York City suburb with her divorced father.
In seven months, she has managed to make only one friend, Rachel.
She longs to be part of the most popular group in her sixth grade class, but her relationship with the very unconventional, volatile Rachel makes it hard for her to be accepted.
In Rachel Vellars, How Could You?, Cory learns a lot about her own values and the feelings of others.
The Great Brain, though not a school story in itself, is an introduction to a lively, funny series for older readers with many episodes about school that are as touching as they are entertaining.
The setting here is Utah in the 1890’s and the “great brain” is Tom, the middle son of the Fitzgeralds, a relatively prosperous, close-knit family. Tom’s inventiveness rids the town of the hated new, paddleloving schoolmaster, but Tom’s underlying decency soon brings him back along with a much-appreciated surprise. Tom’s clever, comical schemes make him a local hero. Readers will laugh, but also observe how much we learn from people around us. Education is hardly limited to school.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, October 1985.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1985_10.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
