School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex (review)

We have lots of books about kids attending school for the first time, but who thinks of the school’s point of view? Adam Rex, that’s who, in this story about the newly built Frederick Douglass Elementary, which is nervously opening to kids for the first time. His feelings are hurt when kids on the playground say they hate school or when a balking kid has to be carried in by a parent (“‘I must be awful,’ the school whispered to himself”). Things improve, however, as the kids are nice about the school’s unintentionally lettting go with a fire alarm and when the school eagerly learns information from lessons; at the end of the day, he excitedly asks his pal, the Janitor, if the kids can come back the next day. The book hits perfect childlike notes in the school’s responses, ranging from his doubt that he would enjoy the kids to his delight when a girl draws a picture of him, making him an appealing offbeat protagonist. His relationship with Janitor evinces real tenderness, and the humor throughout is gently witty rather than raucous. The art balances crisply cut paper layers with comfortable painterly sweeps of color and handhewn lines of brick and chair leg, all floating on white backdrops. There’s a hint of a face in the front doorway (whose smile soon tenses into a straight line), but otherwise there’s no overt visual personification, with the focus on what’s happening in the school rather than the school’s reaction. Anthropomorphization of the whole building is a new and promising approach for school-shy youngsters, and it’ll make the already school-positive want to give their beloved building a hug.