Under the Christmas Tree: Jingle Bells, Homework Smells by Diane DeGroat

Diane de Groat's Jingle Bells, Homework Smells is a homey holiday story of the last days of school before the longed-for winter break.

Mrs. Byrd gamely tries to keep Gilbert's class's attention by reading them a snowman story, but the kids are only half there, daydreaming of the Christmas holidays. When she hands out their weekend assignment to draw and color their favorite story character, good student Gilbert thinks "piece of cake," even though Leon, the class goof-off groans.

But when Gilbert arrives home on Friday, he puts off the assignment to help decorate his mom's Christmas cookies and watch his favorite TV holiday special. Before he can get started on the work on Saturday, Patty invites him to a skating party, and Gilbert goes, promising himself he'll get the job done on Sunday. But on Sunday there's more holiday fun--picking out and decorating their tree with little sister Lola and joining the whole family for a bedtime reading of The Night before Christmas.

As soon as Gilbert awakes on Monday, he remembers the assignment. When he arrives at school, he finds that everyone else has done their work--except Leon, of course. Hit with a desperate inspiration, Gilbert commandeers Leon to help him build a hastily assembled snowman and shows its to Mrs. Byrd as their joint project to fulfill the art assignment. It's obvious that Mrs. Byrd knows what's going on, but she gives them a half-smiley face for effort. Leon is thrilled: it's his very first half-smiley face, but then he's used to getting frowny faces on his work. Usually a top student, it's Gilbert's first half-smiley, too, and he feels as if he's let his teacher down.

Luckily, Mrs. Byrd gives the two an extra day to do the assignment right, and Gilbert comes through with his picture of Santa Claus delivering a Red Racer sled down his own chimney--definitely smiley-face worthy--and Gilbert and Mrs. Byrd share a happy pre-holiday smile.

De Groat's pleasant second-grade stories of Gilbert and his friends hit all the marks--birthdays, Halloween, George Washington's birthday plays, and especially Valentine's Day (Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink) The soft pastel illustrations and charming characters add a lot of appeal to these books, but it is the characterization of Gilbert and his honest struggles with the small but important moral dilemmas that young students have that makes these picture books great for primary readers.