Lucy M. George, a newcomer to these shores, presents the common emotional reaction of a child beginning preschool, with just the right amount of repetition to convey his growing anxiety.
Tortoise is worried. It is the first day of school. What if he trips and falls? What if lunch is peas? Tortoise doesn't like peas. What if he trips and falls and the children laugh at him? What if he doesn't like lunch and the kids are mean to him? Eyckerman's cartoonish watercolors gently depict a variety of creatures: a blue-jacketed squirrel sporting a yellow tie, a robin with a blushing breast and a class clown frog. The double-page illustrations draw the reader's eye to finely rendered details of fluttering oak leaves, a well-appointed classroom and patterned linoleum tiles. In a new twist on the ubiquitous "first day of school" books, Tortoise begins replacing his fearful thoughts with positive imaginings. What if there were cupcakes for lunch? And what if he made lots of new friends? A satisfying back-to-school tale with a surprising-to-a-four-year-old ending: Tortoise is the teacher! --Lisa Von Drasek, librarian at Bank Street College of Education's School for Children