Eddie Gets Ready for School (review)

Told entirely in to-do list format, including little check boxes before each bullet point, this comic-style offering recounts the steps Eddie must take to get ready for school. The tasks themselves seem straightforward (wake up, wash up, get dressed, eat); it is Eddie’s interpretations of them as depicted in the illustrations that add the hilarity. Eddie’s first attempt at getting dressed finds him wearing underpants on his head and carrying a sword, which then requires a later bullet point to “Really get dressed.” His sneak effort to drink root beer for breakfast later finds him at the sink, with Mom looking on: “Pour out root beer.” Eddie packs an entire watermelon as his snack for school and, when deciding what to bring for show and tell, considers the cat, his goldfish, a bird, and the flat-screen TV (he ultimately goes with a pair of underpants). The narrative is, by virtue of the style, a bit choppy, but it’s tied together with sheer buoyant humor, and the story has lots of potential as a lively family read for getting back into the routine at the start of a new school year. Milgrim’s splashy digital compositions feature large planes of solid color and plenty of visual amusement. At the center of each spread is Eddie himself, generally depicted with either a huge, toothy grin or a tongue-out expression while concentrating—usually on a piece of mischief. Little Eddies everywhere will readily identify with his efforts to do things his way, even when the to-do list says something else.