Copyright Date:
2018
Edition Date:
2017
Release Date:
04/03/18
Illustrator:
Battuz, Christine,
Pages:
1 volume (unpaged)
ISBN:
1-7713-8356-9
ISBN 13:
978-1-7713-8356-1
Dewey:
E
Dimensions:
24 cm.
Language:
English
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews
A group of schoolchildren are apprehensive about spending a school day with a substitute teacher, but they manage to get through with help from one another.The narrator, a cat, arrives at school only to find that beloved Miss Seabrooke is gone for the day. But Miss Seabrooke left a comforting note on the whiteboard for the class, and it encourages the cat to seek help from her friends, to be kind to her classmates, and to give the substitute a chance. In general, Battuz's hand-drawn and digitally collaged illustrations are sweet. Miss Seabrooke is perfectly rendered as a capable hen caretaker. However, some illustrations may strike readers as odd. On multiple pages, readers see the substitute, a giraffe, only from the waist down even though he's often depicted in full on several other pages. Though it seems to be an attempt to show him from the students' perspective, it feels abrupt, especially with abundant white space or little background on those pages. The rhyming quatrains flow nicely in general, but the narrator's tendency to capitalize some is distracting. Some appear to be for emphasis, while others are not so easy to understand. Though school goes well for the cat, the book ends realistically, with an expression of anxiety about who might be teaching the next day.This book nicely helps young readers process a common concern even though the illustrations and text contain a few awkward quirks. (Picture book. 4-6)
As soon as she arrives at school, Kitty knows there’s trouble. “Smiling Miss Seabrooke should be here to meet me. But my teacher is missing and NOT here to greet me.” With no Miss Seabrooke, everyone should be sent home, right? But no! Kitty and her classmates line up as usual and walk into the school building. Kitty’s worries build as she wonders how she will get through the day without her teacher. What will she do when her Thermos gets stuck or her jacket won’t zip? Miss Seabrooke is the only one who can fix these things. Or is she?
Author Lana Button perfectly captures the fears and uncertainties of a kindergartner dealing with her first substitute teacher. She also models a way to cope, as Kitty steps up to help the substitute — a “ginormously tall” giraffe named Mr. Omar — and discovers that sometimes change can be good. Button’s playful and lively cadenced rhyming text, together with Christine Battuz’s friendly illustrations of a full cast of animal characters at school, make this a terrific picture book for story time. It provides an excellent lead-in to prepare a class for their first substitute, or for a discussion about how it feels when life doesn’t go as expected. A celebration of self-discovery and personal development, this book also makes a wonderful choice for character education lessons on kindness, empathy and perseverance. Educators will appreciate the heartfelt depiction of a young child’s warm feelings for her teachers.
Common Core
STEAM
Graphic
Novel
High/Low
Chapter
Book
Large
Print
Series Tracker
Manga
Big
Book
Board
Book
Hot
Title
Adult
Language
Mature
Content
Ebook
Ebook
MUA (Multi User Access)
Light Novel
