Back to School: Rufus Goes to School by Kim Griswell

EVERY DAY RUFUS LEROY WILLIAMS III TURNED THE PAGES OF HIS FAVORITE BOOK.

HE LOOKED AT EVERY PICTURE. HE MADE UP STORIES TO GO WITH THEM.

BUT HE COULD NOT READ THE WORDS.

RUFUS KNEW JUST WHAT TO DO.

HE WOULD GO TO SCHOOL.

All pink and polished, Rufus presents himself at school to the principal. But Principal Lipid is prejudiced against pigs. As he points out persuasively,

"PIGS TRACK MUD MUD IN THE HALLS. THEY TURN THEIR DRAWINGS INTO PAPER AIRPLANES!"

But Rufus is resourceful. Maybe he just needs the right school supplies to look like a potential pupil.

Rufus returns with a proper backpack. Principle Lipid is unimpressed.

He turns up again with a new lunchbox. No luck. He brings in a perfectly sized blanket for rest time. No way!

What must poor Rufus do to impress the principal with the importance of school for this pig?

Rufus Leroy Williams III finally comes up with the operant object, the requisite reason, one he has had all along, in Kim T. Griswell's debut back-to-school picture book, Rufus Goes to School (Sterling, 2013). Valeri Gorbachev's picture-perfect illustrations portray the dutifully polite pig and pinch-faced principal to a T, but his comic portrayals of all the potential mischief pigs might cause in school will give kids plenty to giggle over in this well-paced pig-as-pupil tale. For youngsters with rising expectations of reading, pair this one with Tad Hill's' popular How Rocket Learned to Read.