"One very small girl with freckles didn't want to come inside the school at all. Her mother had to carry her.
" 'I must be awful,' the school whispered to himself."
Children will be intrigued by the notion that the looming "first day of school" might also be nerve-wracking for the school building itself. This is the fresh premise for the wonderful School's First Day of School by Adam Rex (Cold Cereal; The True Meaning of Smekday), illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Christian Robinson (Leo: A Ghost Story; Last Stop on Market Street).
When the school is first built, "brick on top of brick," and named Frederick Douglass Elementary, the school doesn't know exactly what he is, but he likes that it's just him and "a man named Janitor" in the world. " 'Won't be just us for long' said Janitor. 'Soon the teachers will come, and then you'll be filled with children.' " This idea makes the school very nervous.
With his expressive, appealingly textured acrylic paint and collage artwork, Robinson manages to give the school just enough personality to be convincingly sentient. Two windows on the front door look like eyes, and the curved front stoop resembles a smile. The school sags a little when one kid says he hates school, and he gives that kid a squirt with the drinking fountain to get even. At day's end, Janitor says, " 'You had a big day.' " It was a big day, and the school wants to invite the children back... especially that little freckled girl. A delightful, perspective-tweaking back-to-school picture book. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness