Back to School: Planet Kindergarten by Sue Ganz-Schmitt

TODAY IS LIFTOFF.

I SUIT UP. DAD HELPS ME WITH MY GEAR.

INTO THE ROCKET!

BOOSTERS FIRE...  BLAST OFF!

There are times in life when a person just has to boldly go...into a new frontier... into a new place in space... even into the world of Planet Kindergarten.

This little astronaut has all the right stuff his mission requires... he hopes! But what if his lunch floats off into outer space?

There's plenty to worry about as the family space shuttle searches for a place to dock, but once inside the big space station, he gets the idea that this command crew knows the drill.

WE ARE ALIENS FROM MANY GALAXIES.
OUR COMMANDER GIVES US OUR FLIGHT PLANS FOR THE DAY.

The little crew mates notice that things in their pod are different from home. There's a different atmosphere here. Even gravity seems to be altered.

WE HAVE TO TRY TO STAY IN OUR SEATS. AND OUR HANDS GO UP A LOT!

It is a new environment, and some of the rookies can't help eyeing the escape hatch. But their training prevails, and they soon get to work executing their mission. Planet Kindergarten is a whole new world, but it is a stimulating one, and before the crew knows it, it's time for splashdown on their home planet ... until tomorrow, when their explorations continue.

Author Sue Ganz-Schmitt's& Planet Kindergarten (Chronicle Books, 2014) offers a unique concept of Kindergarten as a voyage to a different world--which in many ways it is. Some kids contemplating the liftoff to Kindergarten will like to think of themselves as intrepid astronauts on a mission to explore a new world, and artist Shane Prigmore's retro space cartooning, set in digital electric colors against glossy black backgrounds, offers plenty of visual humor in his spoof of the Jetsons-style school that will give rising Kindergartners a giggle and perhaps a new, more heroic view of their mission. "A genius way to ease kids into the new adventure," intones Kirkus Reviews.