<p> Incoming Kindergarten “New School Year” Book List</p><p>Though many children eagerly look forward to beginning school, others find it more worrisome. Here are a few books that may offer reassurance and often, a good laugh too.</p><p>The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing (Reading Railroad Books, 2001, paperback, ages 4-8). It's the first day of school! Join the kids as they prepare for kindergarten, packing school supplies, posing for pictures, and the hardest part of all-saying goodbye to Mom and Dad. But maybe it won't be so hard once they discover just how much fun kindergarten really is!</p><p>I am Not Going to School Today! by Robie H. Harris (McEldery, 2003, ages 3-5). A little boy announces that because he won’t know where anything is on the first day of school, he isn’t going to go until the second day. As Jan Ormerod’s sensitive watercolor and pencil illustrations show, he is only one of a group of slightly worried children who gradually relax as the day goes on.</p><p>Imagine Harry by Kate Klise; illustrated by M. Sarah Klise (Harcourt, 2007, ages 4-6). The boy in Harris’s book goes to school with a stuffed animal, but no one at Little Rabbit’s school can see who accompanies him, because Harry is invisible. Though initially Little Rabbit holds back to take care of Harry, he is surprised eventually to realize that he has new friends and no longer see Harry. The Klise sisters team up successfully again to tenderly depict childhood through Kate’s words and Sarah’s soft acrylic paintings.</p><p>It’s Time for School With Tallulah by Nancy Wolff (Holt, 2007, ages 4-6). Tallulah the cat works to make her new student, Nigel the penguin, feel comfortable and safe. Although supposedly Tallulah is playing school with her friends and her dog, children will get a good preview of how a day unfolds in kindergarten. A light-hearted look at beginning school.</p><p>Off to Kindergarten by Tony Johnston (Cartwheel/Scholastic, 2007, ages 4-6). In this rhyming text a little boy describes all of the things he plans to bring to school, from a sandbox to a chair for his stuffed bear. Children will be reassured by his happy acceptance of his mother’s word that the teacher will have everything he needs. Melissa Sweet’s bright, jaunty paintings keep the tone upbeat.</p><p>Hamsters, Shells, and Spelling Bees: School Poems edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (HarperCollins, 2008, ages 5-8). In another of poet Hopkin’s I can Read poetry anthologies, 20 poems are artfully arranged to take new readers through a school day. Excellent poets such as Jane Yolen, Alice Schertle, and Rebecca Kai Dotlich are featured, along with exuberant pictures by Sachiko Yoshikawa.</p><p>Mildred and Sam Go to School by Sharleen Collicott (HarperCollins, 2008, ages 4-6). In another I Can Read book, two mice parents, Mildred and Sam, send their many children to school together, peeking in the windows at them. The little mice learn a lot, especially about nature and science, and conclude that school doesn’t seem so far from home, compared with Saturn. This very easy-to-read book’s gentle humor is echoed by the softly colored illustrations.</p><p>My Kindergarten by Rosemary Wells (Hyperion, 2004, paperback, ages 4-6). Wells, who writes many books to help children work on the tasks they will need at school and to help them feel comfortable with the classroom, takes one of her earlier characters, Emily, and shows her throughout the school year with her classmates. Month by month, tenderness, empathy, and the joys of learning are modeled on every page through words and Wells’ endearing animal characters.</p><p>Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (HarperCollins, 1968, paperback, ages 6-8). Older children will love looking back on their kindergarten days through the eyes of Cleary’s classic character, Ramona. This funny chapter book takes the imaginative and irrepressible character through a variety of misunderstandings as she learns how things works in school, and as she learns to curb impulses such as reaching out to tug a classmates’ “boing-boing” curls.</p>