School Days: Fairy's First Day of School by Bridget Heos

Mom's got an early morning surprise for little Fairy.

"You'll be starting school soon, Fairy.

You're probably wondering what to expect."

Mom pours each of them some herbal tea from her acorn teapot and sits down to brief her little fairy on what to expect from her first day of school.

"You'll put on your backpack and fly to school, either with your family or on the schoolbird."

The schoolbird sounds a lot like Mother Goose, which promises to be a fun way to flit to school. Little Fairy's mother tells her that a very kind teacher will greet her with a shower of fairy dust, have hang her backpack with the others on a dandelion leaf, and come along to meet the others in her class.

"Flutter your wings to say hello," she says.

Her teacher will sit the class down in a crisscross berry sauce circle and reminds them to raise their wands if they have a question. There will be center time for learning about magic spells and classifying collected baby teeth for the tooth fairy, and they will take turns being the door holder, the line leader, and the pet helper. At lunch, politely take a seat on your toadstool, Teacher will tell them. And after rest time in the napping tree, there is story time--with everyone's favorite fairy tales.

There are so many fun things to do that before you know it, Little Fairy, it will be time to pack up for home, Mom assures her, in Bridget Heos' forthcoming Fairy's First Day of School (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018). With the help of artist Sara Not's blackline drawings, done in bright pastel palette suitable for a fairy tale version of the preschool/primary day, author Heos captures the special magic of the first day of school, with promises of new friends and happy schooldays to come and something wondrous to tell Mom and Dad:

"Once upon a time, I had my first day of school!"