Back to School: School's First Day At School by Adam Rex

That summer they dug up the big field and poured the foundation and sat brick on to of brick until they'd built a school.

A sign above the door read FREDERICK DOUGLASS ELEMENTARY. That's a good name for me, thought the school.

But a new school is like a first-time student. Unschooled. Clueless.

A nice man named Janitor comes every day throughout the summer to paint and polish up the inside, and sometimes Janitor tries to tell School about what is about to happen, but School can't help being nervous about that first day.

Who knew a school has first-day fears, too?

In fresh paint and varnish, School is all dressed up for opening day, just like his students. But all does not go perfectly. School experiences an unexpected fire drill, and the students who have just settled in their new desks have to hustle out and stand on the playground. And as they file back in, School hears some conversations that give him a sick feeling way down in his basement.

Some older students gathered by the back fence and showed their bored faces.

"This place stinks," said one.

School sagged a little.

"I don't like school," says one kid.

Maybe it doesn't like you either, thinks School.

But soon the students are all settling down with their teachers, and Janitor gets to take a much-needed break.

School tunes in to what is going on down in the Kindergarten, where Aiden, Max, Bella, Emma, and Chloe sit together on the circle time rug and learn all about shapes. There's that quiet hum of a school where brains are busy learning new things, and a sense of peace settles over School. It's been a good day, all in all, with more to come, and School knows he's in the right place after all.

Adam Rex's latest, School's First Day of School (Roaring Brook Press, 2016), is a different sort of first-day story, seen from the point of view of a brand-new school, a newbie who, like the students, doesn't quite know what to going to happen. Kids will chuckle at the usual events, a sudden fruit-basket-turnover as an unexpected fire drill sends everyone back outside, one boy giggles so hard that he squirts milk all over School's pristine and polished lunchroom floor. (I'm covered with nose milk, thinks School), and drawings get thumb-tacked to his perfectly painted walls (Ouch!). Building on Rex's polished storytelling, Caldecott-winning artist, (for Last Stop on Market Street) Christian Robinson, adds tidy American primitive collage and acrylic illustrations with wide-angle and up-close looks at the first day of school and--of School himself.

Young students will never look at their schools in quite the same way again. An essential purchase for back-to-school reading. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "Every so often, a book comes along with a premise so perfect, it’s hard to believe it hasn’t been done before; this is one of those books."

A Most Fearsome Oath: Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers School: We the Children by Andrew Clements

Mr. Keane grabbed hold and pressed something into his palm, quickly closing the boy's fingers around it. Then he clamped Ben's fist inside his leathery grip.

"This thing in your hand? I've been carrying around with me every day for forty-three years . . . and before that, the other janitors had it--everyone of them--all the way back to the very first man hired by Captain Oakes himself when he founded the school."

"Look at it...but first promise that you'll keep all this secret." He squinted up into Ben's face, his blue eyes bright and feverish. "Do you swear?"

Ben's mouth was dry. He'd have done anything to get this scary old man with bad breath to let go of him. He whispered, "I swear."

It was a large gold coin with rounded edges, smooth as a beach pebble.

FIRST AND ALWAYS MY SCHOOL BELONGS TO THE CHILDREN. DEFEND IT. DUNCAN OAKES, 1783.

Ben is late for homeroom, running down a back hall in hopes of avoiding detention by making it into his seat before roll call, when he sees the school's elderly head janitor in obvious pain struggling down the hall. Ben tries to help, but instead of sending him for someone, the old janitor seems compelled to pass on some sort of secret talisman to him, something to do with the fate of the old building which has been the town school for more than 200 years.

Ben Pratt knows that his historic school is slated for the wrecking ball at the end of his sixth grade year. Although he loves the old school, given to the town by an eccentric and wealthy sea captain to be its school in perpetuity, Ben has other things on his mind as the school year draws to its close. Not just middle school next year and his parents' painful separation, which is with him like a familiar pain, but more immediately the big sailing race coming up on the weekend where he and rival Robert Gerritt will face off again in the individual heat.

But when the intercom breaks into their afternoon routine with the announcement that Mr. Keane has passed away, Ben suddenly feels the power of the old man's charge hit him full force. And then, there's the mystery of the meaning of this secret that he swore to uphold. How can he defend an old school that is already sold and set for demolition to provide land for a theme park, Tall Ships Ahoy! which the whole town believes will bring nothing but prosperity to Edgeport?

Ben turns to the smartest person he knows, his friend Jill. Together they read the inscription on the back of the gold coin, cryptic directions to someplace "amidships on the top deck, north-northeast." Immediately Jill remembers the compass rose outside the girls' bathroom on the third floor of the school. "The top deck, of course," Ben intuits, and behind a strangely short piece of molding on the wall they find a copper plate engraved and signed by three students in 1791. Hurriedly Jill and Ben walk to Ben's dad's boat to read the message in private:

If you have found this message on purpose, then an evil day besets us.... Captain Oakes has given this school to us, the children, but he feared others would one day try to take it away.

What follows are cryptic clues to the steps the "Keepers of the School" must follow to defend it from demolition. Ben hastily copies the message onto his laptop, and as the two walk down the pier toward home, they are stopped by Kevin at the marina security booth. "This is for your dad," he says, handing Ben a business card which reads JACKSON SWERDLING YACHT BROKER.

Ben is puzzled. His dad hasn't said anything about selling his beloved boat. Jill's suspicions are aroused, and when she questions Kevin about the appearance of the so-called broker, both realize that he must be the school's assistant janitor, Mr. Lyman--an apparent spy for someone. But why? Could Lyman have heard something from Mr. Keane, and knowing that Ben was the last one to talk to him, could he have actually bugged his dad's boat to find out what Ben knows about the mysterious gold coin and its strange charge? Suddenly Ben and Jill realize that they, willing or not, are now the Keepers of the School, and that it is their charge to stop the destruction of the centuries-old school and prevent the construction of the multi-million dollar theme park on its waterfront site. But how?

In this first of a planned series of six novels in the Keepers of the School series, We the Children (Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School) (Atheneum, 2010), best-selling author Andrew Clements lays the groundwork for what looks to be a page-turning mystery/ adventure series. No one knows how to get inside the heads of the upper elementary/middle school protagonist better than Clements, and this series looks to both familiar and new territory for this very capable author. In this first volume, Clements provides plenty of intriguing clues and irresistible hints, along with a daring rescue at sea to wind up the action, as We the Children (Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School) kicks off what promises to be a a page-turning new adventure series for middle readers.

Back to School: Mr. Putter and Tabby Ring The Bell by Cynthia Rylant

"I MISS SCHOOL," SAID MR. PUTTER."

"I MISS PENCILS AND BOOKS.

I MISS GLOBES AND ERASERS.

I WOULD LIKE TO G0 BACK TO SCHOOL," SAID MR. PUTTER,

"FOR JUST ONE DAY."

Autumn is coming, and with crisp days and falling leaves Mr. Putter, becomes nostalgic for those "back to school" days of bright yellow pencils with new pink erasers. His neighbor Mrs. Teaberry has a suggestion. Perhaps the first grade would let them come to school as their show-and-tell guests, with Mr. Putter's fine cat Tabby and Mrs. Teaberry's good dog Zeke as their show-and-tell pets.

"WHAT A GOOD IDEA!" SAID THE FIRST GRADE TEACHER.

"THE CHILDREN LOVE CATS AND DOGS. DO YOURS DO TRICKS?"

Zeke can wear banana cake and water bowls on his head. Tabby only naps a lot and purrs really well.

It's probably too late to teach an old cat new tricks, but Mrs. Teaberry is raring to show off her talented bulldog, so the two show up at the local school as promised, Zeke wearing his red sweater and his snazziest dog-bone tie and Tabby, well, poised to purr. The teacher introduces the visitors and informs them that Tabby and Zeke are there to show off their tricks.

EVERYONE WAITED.

TABBY PURRED. ZEKE SCRATCHED AT HIS TIE.

NO ONE DID A TRICK.

"UH OH," SAID MR. PUTTER.

It's beginning to look as if the "show-and-tell" session is going to be a show-and-fail. Then suddenly the school bell sounds!

DONG!

Tabby suddenly shows how high an old cat can jump straight up, landing on the lap of a little girl who shows her class how loud a little girl can shriek. Zeke shows how even a bowlegged bulldog can outleap a cat and lands in the refreshments, a box of cupcakes, where he shows the kids how fast one small bulldog can gobble up a whole class's cupcakes!

Just as the teacher is about to tell the visitors what she thinks of their tricks, it's saved by the bell. The second DONG prompts Zeke and Tabby to perform their last trick.

IT WAS A DISAPPEARING TRICK.

AND THAT WAS THE END OF SHOW-AND-TELL.

At home over cups of tea, Mr. Putter and Mrs. Teaberry have to laugh over the worst show-and-tell ever, but at least Mr. Putter is glad he got his chance to go back to school--if just for one day.

Cynthia Rylant's twentieth in her best-selling series, Mr. Putter & Tabby Ring the Bell (Harcourt, 2011) is forthcoming in September, featuring, as always, the comic colored-pencil illustrations of the talented Arthur Howard.

DEAR FIRST GRADERS,

SORRY ABOUT SHOW-AND-TELL.

PLEASE ACCEPT OUR CUPCAKES AND APOLOGIES.

YOURS TRULY,
MRS. TEABERRY and MR. PUTTER

Back to School: Daddy's Back to School Shopping Adventure by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

"GET READY TO PUT SOME PEP IN YOUR STEPS, MY LITTLE PICKLE QUACKERS. TODAY WE ARE GOING BACK-TO-SCHOOL SHOPPING!"

Captain Daddy is organizing an expedition, and although thoughts of school starting don't exactly bring cheers, Jack and Jenny know that there are some pretty cool things to be found in the school supplies aisles. But Daddy has a dire warning up front:

"AND WHAT'S THE RULE FOR SCHOOL-SUPPLY SHOPPING?"

"WE ONLY BUY WHAT'S ON THE LIST," CHIME THE KIDS DUTIFULLY.

"WHY DO PARENTS ALWAYS SAY THINGS A HUNDRED MILLION TIMES," JACK MUTTERS SOFTLY.

At the store the kids tag along while all the boring stuff gets selected and checked off--pencils, lined paper, erasers. Yawn. No fun there. The kids hopefully hold up the not-so boring stuff for possible purchase. Garbage-truck pencil sharpener (to encourage recylcing?), maybe? Glow-in-the-dark glue (in case the lights go out at school?)

"HELLO? IS IT ON THE LIST?" HE REMINDS THEM.

But Captain Daddy can't resist clowning it up a bit. How does he look in a warbonnet made from paint brushes and colored markers? Bangle bracelets from rolls of colored tape?

But then Daddy spots something truly cool. It's a classic lunchbox, a dead ringer for the one he loved in third grade! He hugs it and starts to put it in their cart.

"UH, DADDY! IS IT ON THE LIST?"

Daddies do it different in Alan Sitomer's Daddy's Back-to-School Shopping Adventure (Hyperion Books, 2015), and all of Daddy's can-the-consumerism lectures go out the window when he sees his favorite, favorite school supply in all the world for sale. Dad puts it back, the struggle to stick to his own sensible rules reflected all over his face, but there's a surprise ending to celebrate in Sitomer's latest Daddy story that brings hugs all around. Abby Carter's ebullient illustrations capture all the nuances of family interaction in this comic tale of school-supplies bought, or not.

Alan Sitomer's other stories of his irrepressible dad are Daddies Do It Different, and Daddy's Zigzagging Bedtime Story.

Back to School: Max & Mo's First Day at School by Patricia Lakin

"Back to school," said Mo. "It's our first day," said Max.

"New things to make," said Max.

"And new friends, too," said Mo.

Classroom hamsters Max and Mo find themselves on the way back to school, this time to find their habitat ensconced in a place of honor in the art room. The hamsters are excited to be back in the school, and the children are intrigued with their new visitors. But there is just one problem:

"She called me 'Tummy'!" said Mo.

"He called me 'Fluffy!" said Max.

But the sign on the classroom wall says TOMORROW: MAKE NAME TAGS.

Good idea, think Max and Mo. Skillfully breaking out of their cage, the two make use of the abundant art supplies all around them to craft a cardboard paper towel core into a snazzy desk nameplate, propped against their cage, with their REAL names-- MAX and MO--carefully lettered on the front.

When the class returns the next day, "Tummy" and "Fluffy" are forgotten, and Max and Mo are welcomed as members of the class, inspiring the children to get busy making their own desk nametags and in the process making friends with each other as well.

Directions and supplies needed are appended to this "back to school" entry in the charming easy reading series starring the classroom critters Max and Mo, all of which provide tie-ins for classroom crafts. Max & Mo's First Day at School (Ready-to-Read. Level 1) is a great lead-in to the first-day activity of making name tags or desk nameplates. Other Max & Mo classroom tie-in stories include Max & Mo Make a Snowman (Ready-to-Read. Level 1), Max & Mo's Halloween Surprise (Ready-to-Read. Level 1,) and Max & Mo Go Apple Picking (Ready-to-Read)

Back to School: Back to School Tortoise by Lucy M. George

SUMMER WAS ALMOST OVER.

IT WAS TIME TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL.

TORTOISE STARTED THINKING, "WHAT IF....?"

Each new school year is a step into the unknown, and Tortoise is wary of the unknowns ahead on the first day. What if he does something dumb, like stumbling in front of his whole class? What if the lunch is so bad he can't eat it? What if the kids in his new class are mean to him?

It might even be worse!

WHAT IF HE TRIPPED WHILE GETTING LUNCH, AND ALL THE KIDS WERE MEAN TO HIM?

"I CAN'T GO IN!" TORTOISE THOUGHT.

Tortoise takes a time-out outside the school door to think about it. The new class could be awful. It happens. But then...he looks at it from another angle.

WHAT IF IT WAS FUN, WITH HIS FAVORITE LUNCH, AND... LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS?

It might be too good to miss. Tortoise screws up his courage, picks up his backpack and pushes through the schoolroom door, with a brave smile for everyone inside.

"GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE!" HE SAID.

"GOOD MORNING, MR. TORTOISE!" THEY SHOUTED BACK.

Even teachers have first-day jitters, and Lucy M. George's Back to School Tortoise (Albert Whitman, 2011) has a surprise conclusion that shows that opening-day anxieties are very much the same for teachers and their students, Merel Eyckman's gentle pastel pencil and watercolor illustrations help give a soft edge to this story of first-day-of-school fears.

For double read-aloud fun, follow up this one with Julie Dannenburg's First Day Jitters, which shares the same plot device, and see how long it takes little listeners to pick up on the partially concealed visual cues that reluctant scholar Sarah Jane is really Ms. Sarah Jane Hartwell, a new teacher about to face a brand-new class in her brand-new school.

Back to School: Sophie's Squash Goes to School by Pat Zietlow Miller

ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, SOPHIE PEEKED INTO THE CLASSROOM

KIDS WERE EVERYWHERE.

TALKING. LAUGHING. BOUNCING.

"YOU'LL MAKE LOTS OF FRIENDS," SAID HER MOTHER. SOPHIE CLUTCHED HER BACKPACK.

"I WON'T!" SHE SAID.

Sophie is an only child who likes things her way--quiet. She only likes to play with Bonnie and Baxter, the squash twins, the children of her first friend, Bernice the Squash. When Bernice began to soften, she had reluctantly planted her in the garden and waited all winter for her new best friends, Bonnie and Baxter, to grow. And now Sophie has to go to school every day. But at least Bonnie and Baxter can go with her.

Still, Sophie doesn't like school.

THE CHAIRS WERE UNCOMFORTABLE. THE MILK TASTED FUNNY. AND NO ONE APPRECIATED BONNIE AND BAXTER.

Norman even wanted to know if they could eat them!

Sophie quietly does as she is told, but by herself. Her teacher is patient, but one kid, Steven Green, seems to be curious about Sophie and her two friends with the painted smiles. It seems he's always there, next to her at circle time, at recess, lunch time, and during art time. Sometimes he just stands so close he breathes on her.

"HE'S JUST TRYING TO BE NICE," SAID MISS PARK.

Sophie is having none of it, and gives Steven Green the cold shoulder, even when he offers his plush frog Marvin to play with Bonnie and Baxter.

But as the school year passes, Sophie begins to notice the tell-tale signs. Bonnie and Baxter are beginning to shrink, soften, and get freckled, and she realizes that the time is coming when she will have to put them to bed in the garden for their long winter's sleep. One morning, with autumn leaves falling outside the windows, as Sophie lovingly draws Bonnie and Baxter's squash babies, her teacher Miss Park asks a question:

"WHAT MAKES A GOOD FRIEND?"

And Sophie begins to think about that question, in Pat Zietlow Miller's brand-new sequel to her acclaimed first book, Sophie's Squash (see review here). Sophie considers the long lonely winter ahead and realizes that there's been a good friend there, right beside her, all along, in Sophie's Squash (Schwartz and Wade, 2016). With artist Anne Wilsdorf's charming ink and watercolor illustrations again aboard to help tell the story, Miller's new picture book is about much more than the usual back-to-school anxieties--a story about growing up and out and accepting others, even if she is not exactly in charge of their friendship, about what children bring to school and what school brings to them. Sophie at last sees that, like squash...

"SOMETIMES GROWING A FRIEND JUST TAKES TIME."

Back to School! Ready Or Not, Woolbur Goes to School! by Leslie Helakoski

It's the first day of school, and little Woolbur is up for it!

"I can dress myself and fix my wool!"

"No one else will look like you," said Maa.

"Your wool is a little unusual," said Paa.

"I know," said Woolbur.

"Isn't it great?"

With his wool in something like wild dreadlocks, Woolbur is more than ready to take on Barnyard Elementary. His confidence is overwhelming. When the other piglets and puppies and little llamas struggle to to paint houses and snowmen, Woolbur's painting is clearly avant garde abstractionist.

"We can't tell if it's upside down or right side up," said Dog.

"I know," said Woolbur.

"Isn't it great?"

When it's time to wash up after art, Llama laments that there are so many of them at the sink. Woolbur replies that that's great! Goat grouches that grass tastes different in the school cafeteria. Woolbur agrees and adds that that's great. Donkey does not like the noisy new games on the playground. Pig objects to riding the bus home.

"It's filled with kids I don't know," said Pig.

I know," said Woolbur.

"Isn't it great?"

With the exception of James Dean's Pete the Cat's Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, most well-known back-to-school stories deal with fears of the unknown, but in Leslie Helakoski's Ready or Not, Woolbur Goes to School! (Harper, 2018), her popular woolly character is an unusual first-time student who immediately embraces the newness of everything there.

Woolbur is a far-from-sheepish little lamb who loves novelty, a gung-ho little character who humorously flips the trope of the fearful school newbie and whose ebullient style gives youngsters an appreciation of the positive side of new experiences. As Pete the Cat would say, "It's all good!" Helakoski's use of Woolbur's repeated take on the unexpected will bring some laughs, and noted artist Lee Harper milks Woolbur's enthusiastic embrace of everything for all it's worth in her vibrant, full-bleed illustrations. "In a long list of appealing back-to-school books, this one really makes the grade," puns School Library Journal.

The Past Is Prologue: Malcolm Under the Stars by W. H. Beck

When Malcolm, Mr. Binney's classroom pet rat, learns that his special nutter friend Amanda is moving away, he thinks that is the worst thing that could happen. But that night there is an emergency meeting of the Midnight Society, and his world seems to crumble beneath him.

Honey Bunny's whiskers twitched at Malcolm. Tank the turtle finished in a rush. "They're saying the electrical system may not be up to code. They'll have to rewire the whole school, which will make the boiler room incident look like loose change. The whole thing--well, it was proposed tonight that maybe McKenna's time has come."

It was Malcolm who stepped forward. "Time for what? Repairs?"

Tank pulled his head inside his shell. "It's official now. The school board has scheduled two "listening sessions, where lankies can say what they think. And then they'll vote." Polly the parakeet and Tank exchanged looks. "They're talking about closing the school."

For longer than the memories of any of the classroom pets whose secret Midnight Academy has looked out for the welfare of their school--the lankies (teachers) and the nutters (students)--McKenna Elementary has been their home. Sure, fifth graders graduated, but there were always new nutters who needed them. But now, with major structural problems everywhere, it looked like the city was determined to terminate McKenna Elementary and disperse their own nutters and lankies to two other schools.

But Malcolm and others of the Midnight Academy rally to save the school. They uncover the history behind McKenna, once Clearwater's only high school, and get the nutters to present a program with a plea to preserve the historic school, to rally graduates of the high school and former students to keep it alive. And in the course of their investigations of old high school annuals on a bottom shelf in the library, they uncover a legend, the mysterious philanthropist who funded their now crumbling auditorium and gym, and a series of coded hobo ciphers which hint of a time capsule from 1938 and a "Loaded Stash" that might just cover the cost of the old building's repairs and more. But none of the "Inside critters" currently serving as class pets have memories that go back to that time to help find that stash in time to save their school.

Unless.... Malcolm remembers how he saved Beert the barn owl, trapped in the clock tower, and how Beert had introduced him to some of the "Outside critters" who had helped him save the school from the evil cat Snip's plan to poison the nutters' water supply. Desperate, Malcolm screws up his courage to ask the legendary Striped Shadow across the river in his abandoned factory redoubt for help.

And then...the Shadow tells him that there is one critter living there, one whose memory from kittenhood goes back far enough to link them to the secret of the Stash.

Malcolm can't believe it, but that critter is Snip, the feral cat who haunted McKenna School, the villain he though he had vanquished in the boiler episode, the only one who may know how to find the hidden secret that can save their school and keep the Midnight Academy critters together with their nutters and lankies.

As William Faulkner famously said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." And Malcolm's midnight quest under the stars indeed reveals that the past is still alive, a past that provides a way to a totally surprising ending that promises a future for McKenna Elementary School, in W. H. Beck's eagerly awaited Malcolm Under the Stars (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015). Malcolm, a mere runty ratling who gains entry to Mr. Binney's classroom by pretending mousehood, is the intrepid crusader who leads the way to save his fellow critters' mission to befriend and mentor future nutters on their way to growing up. A engrossing history mystery, with colorful and courageous critter characters and a cast of varied and resourceful kids and teachers who come together to save their community makes for a page-turning adventure that has a lot to say about the courage, perseverance, and initiative it takes to maintain any community.

For a perfect classroom read-aloud, pair this one with its noted prequel, Malcolm at Midnight (see my 2012 review here.)

Back to School: Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

Okay, so imagine the day your great-great-grandmother was born. Got it? Now go back a hundred years or so. And then another hundred. That's about when they built Hills Village Middle School.

Of course, I think it was a prison for Pilgrims back then, but not too much has changed.

Now it's a prison for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

For Raphael (a.k.a. Rafe) Khatchadorian, his unpronounceable, unspellable name is the least of his worries. Unlike the Wimpy Kid, who at least has Rowdy, Rafe doesn't have a best friend, unless you count Leo the Silent, who mostly draws instead of talking to him. His sister is a fourth-grade snoop who is only on his side when it comes to his mother's loutish and lazy fiance, who rouses himself from the couch only to issue orders to Rafe or raid the fridge. His mom Jules is great, but she's working two shifts at the diner since her boyfriend Bear moved in just to keep the family afloat, leaving Rafe mostly under Bear's thumb.

And as Rafe stumbles into his homeroom and tries to take his first seat for the first day of middle school, he runs afoul of the class bully, Miller the Killer:

"You're in my seat," said Miller.

"I don't see your name on it," I told him, and I was just starting to think maybe that was the worst thing to say, when Miller put out one his XXXL paws around my neck and starting lifting me like a 100-pound dumbbell. "Let's try that again," he said. "This is my seat. Understand?"

"SIT DOWN, NOW!" bellowed Mr. Rourke.

Since nobody else was stupid enough to sit right in front of Miller, that was the only seat left.

And because I'm the world's biggest idiot, I didn't look back when I went to sit in my chair. That's why I hit the dirt as I went down--all the way down--to the floor.

The good news? Given the way things had started off, I figured middle school could only get better from here.

The bad news? I was wrong about the good news.

The usual middle school stock characters are in attendance here--Dragon Lady Donatello for English, Principal Dwight with his 93 pages of school rules, Coach Lattimore, an apparent undergrad sadism major, the hair-netted lunchroom ladies with endless supplies of toxic meatloaf, and, to break the monotony of pain and boredom, the pretty and popular Jeanne Galleta, who occasionally gives our hero a smile.

But Leo the Silent has a plan: as Principal Dwight drones on at assembly, plowing through the HVMS Code of Conduct, Leo sketches out a way to make the misery fun--a challenge even. Can Rafe break every school rule and rack up a million points before the school year ends? Rafe hesitates, but then takes the Operation R.A.F.E. challenge. His first mission: set off the fire alarm in the middle of the reading of the rules. Rafe wheedles his way to a bathroom pass, doing his best whiny potential pants-wetter voice, and races to the nearest fire alarm box. Chaos! Success! 50,000 points already. And it's only the first day!

And the game is on. Rafe progresses from simple chewing-gum-in-class infractions, finally earning major points with a three-day suspension for burning his first failing report card. His sixth-grade year is going splendidly, game-wise, that is. And then his pranks hit the wall. He breaks his own rule, No One Gets Hurt, and inadvertently gets Jeanne sent to detention too.

Then disaster strikes. Miller the Killer seizes his notebook with the Operation R.A.F.E. scoring system and Leo's cartoons, and threatens to blow his cover unless Rafe pays him an ever-increasing price scale for each page. Rafe is forced to purloin soft drinks from Bear's hidden cache in the basement and set up a contraband trade out of his locker to make the payments. The game spins out of control, and Rafe becomes more and more desperate.

And then it gets worse! Jeanne points out that the consequences for Operation R.A.F.E. and the ensuing failing grades are going to qualify him for the booby prize--summer school--or even worse--repeating the whole sixth grade fiasco again next year! Help!

James Patterson's just published Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life (Little, Brown, 2011) uses the same devices--first person narration and kid-style cartoon illustration--as Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series, and gives us the story of a kid with two strikes against him who nevertheless takes a futile swing at the one that is high and outside. But despite Rafe's eleven-year-old take on his first year at middle school, there are some adults who know how to offer him what he needs to break the loser mold. Dragon Lady Donatello is actually on his side, and working with his mother, who finally boots the Bear, finds a way for Rafe to get another chance at hitting it out of the park.

This is a highly-readable, very funny best seller which nonetheless slips in a lot of insight into the middle school mind. Middle readers can always do with a bit of self-understanding, and Patterson's and co-author Chris Tebbetts' dose of this rare quality goes down easy here, coupled as it is with Laura Park's cartoon illustrations which mix sixth-grade reality and fantasy well. As Susan Carpenter, reviewer for The Los Angeles Times, puts it,"Middle School" does a wonderful job of channeling the anxiety, and (il)logic, of the middle-grade mind. "Middle School" is a perfectly pitched novel exploring an important and under-covered topic: the unhealthy ways in which disempowered kids express themselves to obtain some sort of control over situations in which they find themselves helpless."

School Days, Dog Days: Marley Goes to School by John Grogan

It was the first day of school, and Cassie laid out her back-to-school supplies.

Marley was all set for the big day, too. By the front door he laid out his supplies.

Check. Bone! Check. Squeaky toy! Check. Favorite blanket!

Baby Louie crawled around the corner. "Waddy go school!" he exclaimed.

Mommy looked at Marley, thumping his tail by the front door. "I don't think so, Big Guy!" she said.

"I definitely don't think so," said Daddy.

Marley is unceremoniously relocated to the backyard for safekeeping while Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Louie walk Cassie to school for the first day. But Marley is NOT a dog to let a little obstacle like a chain-link fence get in the way of important business, and going where Cassie goes is, after all, HIS business. A few minutes of digging and demolishing the family's garden and he finds he can squeeze right under the fence. Putting his nose on the job, he is soon trailing Cassie all the way to her school.

"They're expecting me," Marley concludes as he scoots through the open door, but inside there are a multitude of scents and sounds and sights to distract a puppy. Where to look for Cassie in this busy place?

Bumbling into the copy center, Marley finds no Cassie; in fact, there is no one in there, giving Marley just enough time to investigate an interestingly humming copy machine. Yipes! Where did that bright light come from? Why are all those papers suddenly coming out of this thing? Marley scoots, leaving the machine methodically printing out a series of photocopies of his curious face. But Marley is off, getting on with the search for his girl.

In the cafeteria kitchen, the lunch ladies are hard at work preparing a first-day hot dog feast for the kids. Hmmmm! Marley's nose leads him, not to Cassie, but to a stainless steel bin filled with just-cooked hot dogs. Better sample those for Cassie, just to make sure they're tasty! Brrrrp! Wow, those lunch ladies in their hairnets and aprons look really mad. Guess it's time to get on with the search! Now!

Marley makes his way through the music class and the science class, where he just happens to, um, liberate a cage of white mice, through the library, where a puppy and a few stray mice shatter the quiet, on to Mrs. Weatherbee's math class, where he does add to the excitement, and on to the gym, where he can't resist grabbing the kids' basketball and making a dash for the playground. By this time the gym teacher, the lunch ladies, Vice-Principal Tanner, AND Principal Peabody are in full pursuit, and after a chase over the seesaw and through the tunnel and down the slide, Marley at last finds the object of his affections--Cassie.

Clifford, Slippers, Biscuit, and even way back when, Beverly Cleary's Ribsy, have gone to school with hilarious results, so why not Marley? Abetted by Richard Cowdrey's droll illustrations of that irrepressible rascally retriever, John Grogan's brand-new addition to the Marley series, Marley Goes to School is bound to be a hit with kids, a fun read-aloud for those first days at school for primary graders. Other Marley picture books include Bad Dog, Marley!, and A Very Marley Christmas (reviewed here); for middle readers there is Marley: A Dog Like No Other, and forthcoming August 25, a new Marley for beginning readers, Marley: Marley's Big Adventure (I Can Read Book 2).

Sub Flubs: Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches by Lisa Broadie Cook

It's Monday, and all Martin MacGregor wanted to do was go to school.

Mr. Elliott was the coolest teacher ever, and this was the day he was going to bring in his pet, Harriet the Tarantula.

Mr. Elliott is just too cool for school, and Martin MacGregor makes sure he arrives at his classroom door nice and early to please his wonderful teacher.

But that's not Mr. Elliott at his desk. It's a substitute, aptly named Mrs. Payne, whose style turns out to be definitely old school. School is suddenly not cool, and at the end of the day, she piles on the homework!

But Martin is a good student and he doesn't want to disappoint Mr. Elliott with bad marks when he returns, so he goes straight home and tackles his mountain of homework. Just as he is almost finished with his math problems, he has an attack of the munchies and returns to his desk with a thick peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Disaster strikes. The gloppy jam escapes its boundaries and a big blob lands right on Martin's math paper. And when Martin hurries back with a wet paper towel to try to salvage his work, he finds his dog Sadie has already, er, cleaned up the spill.

"Sadie! You didn't just eat the peanut butter--you ate the whole paper," yelled Martin.

"This gives a whole new meaning to 'the dog ate my homework!'"

Mrs. Payne is neither amused nor pleased with Martin's true tale, and he has to stay in at recess and do his math homework all over again.

Things go downhill from there. The next day, as soon as Martin gets home, his mom hustles him out of his jeans to fill out her laundry load, and his forgotten spelling paper comes out all faded and stiff. Mrs. Payne finds that unacceptable also, and Martin misses another recess while he does a redo. The next day Martin's little sister mistakenly takes his backpack, with his carefully completed and unlaundered homework to school with her, and Martin winds up with a backpack full of nothing but a doll named Miss Nettie belonging to his sibling. More recess redos.

Even Mother Nature is out to get him. When he carefully hand-carries his homework to school the next day, the wind blows two pages onto the school roof.

"I learned that homework on the roof didn't count with Mrs. Payne," Martin says ruefully, as he spends another recess on a two-page redo.

Homework seems hopeless. Martin complains and his dad suggests that he make up his own assignment and offers his computer for Martin to research any topic he wants to write about. Martin is delighted, and all weekend he works on a report on tarantulas. If he can't have Harriet in his classroom, at least he can know all about her and make his own model of her at home.

But substitutes don't stay forever, and when the next Monday rolls around, Mr. Elliott, broken arm in a sling, is back, along with the promised Harriet, and a new assignment--to find out everything the class can about tarantulas. The student with the best report is going to get to take Harriet home for the weekend! This time Martin is ahead of the game!

"I wonder how my mom and sister will feel about a weekend guest?" Martin grinned.

In Lisa Brodie Cook's newest Martin MacGregor story, Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2011), perseverance pays off, even when luck seems to abandon our poor scholar. Jack Davis's comic illustrations add a lot to the fun of this bad-luck back-to-school story.

Back to School! Click, Clack, Quack to School by Doreen Cronin

Farmer Brown's got MAIL, and Duck delivers the letter, some of it written in orange crayon.

Dear Farmer Brown,

Please be our guest at our Farm Day lunch tomorrow.

Bring the animals, too!

Love,
Dinkelmeyer Elementary School
P.S. What's your favorite color?
P.P.S.: How old are you?P.P.P.S.: We have a turtle.

It's been quite a while since Farmer Brown has been to school. He's honored, and he wants his farm animals to make a good impression.

But when he tells them about their visit, they begin to cluck, and moo, and oink excitedly. Farmer Brown lectures his livestock sternly.

"School is very serious," he tells his hens. "No CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCKING!"

"School is very calm," he tells the cows. "No STOMPING, CLOMPING, AND MOOING."

"School is very quiet," he tells the pigs. "No HOOTING, HOLLERING, OR OINKING."

Now it is time to lay down the law to Duck, who is always up to something. But Farmer Brown finds her meditating solo, seated on her yoga cushion, eyes closed, breathing slowly in and out. She doesn't register any reaction to his words, but he warns her anyway.

"Try not to be--Ducky,"

With his critters properly chastised, the next morning Farmer Brown loads his subdued livestock up in his truck and drives them to the elementary school. Strangely, when they arrive at Dinkelmeyer Elementary, there are no signs of a gala Farm Day celebration under way in the schoolyard. But at least his charges are following the rules. No one is mooey, clucky, or oinky, and Duck still seems to be concentrating exclusively on her deep breathing. The whole building is just as a school should be-- quiet, calm, and serious.

And then the bell rings.

Suddenly the schoolyard explodes with noisy energy as the kids run outside for recess....

Squeaking and squealing...

Zooming and zigging....

And Farmer Brown's animals quickly revert to type and join the kids in their free-for-all of chattering and yelling. The cows are mooey, stomping and clomping, the pigs are oinky, wallowing and hollering, and the chickens are cluckey, snapping and clapping. It seems the critters fit right in with the kids.

But where is Duck?

Duck is being--Ducky, seated in the school office at the Principal's desk, perhaps writing some new school rules with an orange crayon:

Be kind. Be helpful. Be honest. Be safe.

Respect one another, and don't eat the paste.

For a quick review of school rules, Doreen Cronin's new beginner reading story, Click, Clack, Quack to School! (A Click Clack Book) (Atheneum, 2018) is just what the teacher ordered. Duck is up to her old tricks, this time with a little forgery and finagling, and illustrator Betsy Lewin's unique and quirky characters are more charming than ever, if possible. For more take-your-critters-to-school fun, pair this one with Cynthia Rylant's and Arthur Howard's delightful Mr. Putter and Tabby Ring the Bell (see review here).

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.

Back to School: Back to Dog-Gone School by Amy Schmidt

FIRST DAY JITTERS

I am ready for school.
It's my first day.

I see the bus

Heading my way!

Even an adorable golden Lab pup has holidays, and when it's time for back-to-school days..., well, things can get a little scary and hairy.

Well, who wouldn't have the jitters? Will he miss the bus? Will the driver fuss?

If not, will he get a seat? Will his teacher be sweet? Who's he going to meet?

And even if old friends Simon and Ralphie are in his class, will math be too hard for him to pass?

Will he remember the alphabet? Who will be the teacher's pet?

Will the water fountain be too tall? Will he find the Boys' Room down the hall?

This little Lab has a lot to think about on his first day of school, in Amy and Ron Schmidt's easy reader, Back to Dog-Gone School (Step into Reading) (Random House, 2016), which offers a vicarious run-through of the first day of school for kids with the opening-day willies. Poet Amy Schmidt provides the pup-themed verses, and Ron Schmidt provides the cute canine photos (the boys' bathroom door has a fireplug icon to make it easily recognizable) in this rehearsal of that epic day, including math class, lunchroom sharing, know-it-all golden girls, and the best part of the day. D.E.A.R. --Drop Everything And Read!

Random House, the pioneer of the I-Can-Read genre, offers a bit of school orientation for nervous new scholars in this title in their Step-into-Reading series, Level Two, which offers controlled vocabulary, visual cues, and rhymes to ease the way for practice for newly independent readers.

Math Slam! Superhero School by Aaron Reynolds

Leonard was the only kid on his Little League team who could hit a baseball into orbit.

He was the only kid on his block who had welded the Bay City Bridge back together with heat vision.

So when his mom told him he was going to a special school, he couldn't wait for hero school to start.

He was fired up to leap tall building in a single bound. He was pumped up to bend steel beams with his bare hands. He was revved up and raring to go to stop speeding trains.

But Superhero School turns out to be a bit of a bust for the would-be caped crusader. Leonard's teacher, Mr. Tornado, is windy, all right. In fact, he talks on and on about math. The superkids wrestle with multiplication tables on Monday, deal with division on Tuesday, and conquer nothing but fractions on Wednesday. Except for being measured for his superhero uniform and having classmates with obvious super powers, it's just like regular school--except that his teacher has a wicked vortex. Leonard longs for some evil robots to vanquish or a runaway train to halt, but Mr. Tornado just chuckles and assigns more homework.

Mr. Tornado was beginning to annoy Leonard.

But when Leonard arrives at school on Friday, something is wrong. There are icicles and snowballs and empty Slurpee Cups everywhere! A sinister note has been left for the students:

Dear Hero Students,
Have kidnapped the teachers. Taking over the world. School cancelled.

Best wishes,
The Ice Zombies.

Superkids to the rescue! Since the only flying heroes in the class are Leonard and Sarah, each quickly takes one-half the class and tows them through the sky as they head for the Arctic Circle. But wait! The zombies are protected by an ice wall fifteen feet thick--and Leonard's heat vision rays can only melt five feet of ice! Leonard has to recruit two more superkids to multiply their powers to melt all fifteen feet. Confronting the villains, the superheroes quickly divide the zombies between them and each in his or her own way soon has the bad guys iced down for good.

But wait! What have the superheroes been doing here (besides being super)? Fractions, multiplication, division--MATH! Is this whole adventure a sneaky exercise designed by Mr. Tornado to convince the students that math itself has super powers? It all adds up, especially when the super students return to school and discover that they have all scored an A+ on Mr. Tornado's hands-on math pop quiz!

Andy Rash's cartooning style is well suited to Aaron Reynolds' superhero school tale in their new collaboration, Superhero School, (Bloomsbury, 2009) which puts a brand-new twist to the back-to-school tale. Illustrator Rash has lent his comic hand to noted author Daniel Pinkwater in their Fat Camp Commandos and Fat Camp Commandos Go West, and Aaron Reynolds is also the author of the popular Buffalo Wings and Chicks and Salsa.