What NOT to Wear! You're Wearing THAT to School? by Lynn Plourde

The first day of school is tomorrow, and rising first-grader Tiny is ready to give Penelope, an ebullient hippo Kindergartner, the lowdown on how to handle that first day.

"STARTING SCHOOL IS TRICKY!" SAYS TINY.

Unfazed, Penelope poo-poos the little mouse's warning.

"HANGING UPSIDE DOWN IS TRICKY!" SHE SAYS.  "SCHOOL WILL BE FUN!"

Penelope has it all under control. She will be wearing her sparkle tutu outfit, accented with a pale pink boa, gold tights with aqua and purple stripes, and her purple hightop sneakers.

"YOU'RE WEARING THAT TO SCHOOL?!  YOU HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN!" MOANS TINY.

Penolope is also planning to pack a preposterous picnic for lunch, and for Show-and-Tell she's taking her favorite Hugsy Hippo stuffed toy.

"OH, NO NO NO!" GROANS TINY.

Tiny is a believer in blending in, looking like everyone else.  He nixes the sparkly dress and picks out jeans and a conservative tee. He makes her a PB&J sandwich for her lunchbox, and substitutes a small, plain rock in lieu of Hugsy Hippo.   "Big kids don't bring baby things to school!" he insists.

Tiny leaves Penelope, believing that thanks to his advice her debut at school at school will be remarkably unremarkable, but the next day he learns that she has decided to go with her own style, with interesting and unpredictable results.  Lynn Plourde, that comic chronicler of school days, makes use of a flamboyant hippo and a quiet and unassuming little mouse as character foils in  her latest, You're Wearing THAT to School?! (Hyperion, 2013).  Artist Sue Cornelison's colorful and exuberant Penelope is the original "I gotta be me" girl, and the illustrator's light line and pastels manage to make her hefty heroine a light and light-hearted fashionista who approaches the first day as a wonderful adventure and takes her timid friend Tiny along for the fun.

Plourde's other primary school stories include Pajama Day (Picture Puffin Books), School Picture Day (Picture Puffin Books), Field Trip Day, Science Fair Day, and Teacher Appreciation Day (Picture Puffin Books).