September is synonymous in the minds of young and old with the beginning of school. Most adults vividly remember the fear and excitement of the beginning of school. Now, as parents, many want to prepare their children for the transition from home to school.
"School" may begin very early for a child whose working parents place their children in child care. Still other parents may feel that a "school" setting provide the peer growth that a young child needs. Children may or may not need help transitioning. My son dashed for all the colorful activities and never even bothered to say good-bye. My daughter cried for weeks before she adjusted.
Explaining the concept of school is difficult. Photographer Jill Krementz has done a marvelous job of picturing a day care situation in her Katharine Goes to Nursery School. The board book format makes it easy for little fingers to turn pages and view another small child enjoying a great many activities. Katharine paints, uses a cubby, talks to a guinea pig and plays on the playground... all the essentials of happy childcare are shown. Her enthusiasm is obvious and inspiring. Katharine is rather like a pre-school tour director showing the cheerful side of elements common to many situations. The setting and activities are as colorful as the Krementz full-color photos. Ages 2-4. (Random House, $3.95)
Mr. Rogers similarly introduces child care to the young child. The text of Going to Day Care has an emotive, calming tone and the illustrations give balanced racial representation while comforting children through saying good-bye, delineating differences between home and school and describing the pleasures of taking care of younger children. Ages 2-4. (Putnam, $11.95, $5.95)
Harlow Rockwell presents My Nursery School with clear simple drawings that examine the wealth of activities children can experience in school. Ages 2-4. (Greenwillow,$11.95 , Penguin, $3.95)
Anne Sibley O'Brien is masterful at catching the emotions behind issues of a small child. In her board book, Come Play With Us, we see Rachel going to day-care for the first time with her father. Not only is the father shown in this participatory role, the children, not the teacher, are the ones who show the crying Rachel how much fun she can have at school. At the end Rachel's sureness of her father's return is accented. The board book format makes this a book that a child can carry about for comfort. Ages 2-4. (Holt, $3.95)
Another school boardbook is School, one of the Whiskerville series that shows young mice experiencing their world. Joanne Barkan shows us the ABC's of school as well as cubbies, clay work, music and naptime. Karen Schmidt's illustrations of the mice students will charm any young listener into viewing the pleasures school has to offer. Ages 2-4. (Putnam, $3.50)
We Play by Phyllis Hoffman is a book of very few words, but those present are well-chosen, well-rhymed and perfectly describe the day of a pre-schooler from arrival to departure. Included in activities are hugging, munching, and punching and poking at clay. Illustrations by Sarah Wilson are warm and comforting and are as much in child-view as Ms. Hoffman's text. Ages 1-3. (A Charlotte Zolotow Book, Harper and Row, 1990)
World renowned children's book advocate Dorothy Butler knows the mind of a young child. She knows the importance of support when a young child faces going to school. shows us this in her first picture book My Brown Bear Barney. The young heroine has always taken her brown bear Barney with her for support. On shopping, gardening, beaching and visiting excursions, Barney is always part of her life. When her parents tell her that bears don't go to school, she knows that somehow, she will take Barney. Continuity of text provides a nice continuity in thinking. Ages 2-4. (Greenwillow, $11.95)
In Anna Marie's Blanket, Joanne Barkan sets up a wonderful reversal of this situation. When Anne Marie tells her blanket she'll be going to school without it, the blanket is disraught! It feels sorry for itself, sulks, cries until the wise Anna Marie trains it to care for all her dolls and stuffed animals that will be left behind. The night before nursery school begins, the blanket takes back its insults and can talk to Anna Marie about all the fun she'll have the next day. Humor and feeling go hand in hand to make this a story that will make a pre-schooler laugh and be consoled at the same time. I especially loves the way Deborah Maze portrays the pouting blanket. Ages 2-5. (Barron's,1990)
One of the major issues threatening a young child preparing for school is being left. Dorothy Corey's You Go Away shows children of many races and ages facing many different situations of leaving. Peek-a-boo, being thrown up into the air, leaving a room and a grocery aisle lane are portrayed as well as several school situations. Words and illustrations are simple making this book accessible for a very young child. There is a strong emotive tone that reveals the fears as well as the reassurance of parent's safe return. Ages 2-4. (Whitman, $9.75)
In Barney is Big by Nicki Weiss, Barney is ready for his first day of nursery school, at least he thought he was until his mother informs him that she is not going with him. Then Weiss shows us his apprenhension via picture and word. Barney's mother gives him lots of mothering and Barney plays at being a baby until he feels big enough to take on school by himself. Ages 3-4. (Greenwillow, $11.95)
If a pre-schoooler isn't upset at the prospects of going to school, he or she may be upset at being left at home by siblings. This is just the case in Emily McCully's School. The young wrist-wearing mouse protagonist is left behind. Ages 2-4. (Harper and Row, $11.95 )
School accessories are envy items for the left-at-home sibling. In Jeannette Caines' I Need A Lunch Box, a pre-school boy can put up with the fact that his sister gets new pencils, pens, and erasers, and a new raincoat and umbrella. But he is made miserable by the fact that his sister is given a lunch box and he isn't. Not only can he imagine all kinds of uses for a lunch box, but he dreams of splendid designs. These are made all the more magical by the stunningly brilliant-colored drawings of illustrator Pat Cummings. On the first day of school, the boy's resentment turns to joy when his father presents him with his very own lunch box. Ages 3-6. (Harper and Row, $12.95)
These children's books about school talk about the feelings a young child may have while they concentrate on the fun of activities, the joy of peer relations and the nurturing teacher who cares profoundly about her charges. Reading about school will calm and re-assure a worried child. It will also create a safe environment for children to talk about the feelings of the characters they have identified with.