On the First Day of Kindergarten

May 9, 2016
It’s Christmas in July (sort of) as Rabe adapts “The Twelve Days of Christmas” to a kindergarten setting. As she and Hughes follow a girl with a ladybug backpack through the first 12 days of her school year, Rabe maintains the cumulative structure of the original carol, but skips the counting lesson. Thus, the second day of kindergarten features “making lots of friends,” and day five is all about “singing a song” (a line designed to be belted out à la “five golden rings”). Hughes mixes pencil, paint, and digital media as she creates a rough-and-tumble cast of scruffy-haired kindergartners in brightly colored outfits, who take part in a footrace on the fourth day of school, paint pictures on day nine, and head to the zoo for a field trip on the 12th day. It’s an upbeat, readily sing-able portrait of the fun side of kindergarten. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Marisa Corvisiero, Corvisiero Literary.

August 1, 2016

PreS-K-This cumulative verse describes the joyful activities of the first few days of kindergarten. Only the first two verses rhyme and most, but not all, contain alliteration. Still, the lines scan well and beg to be sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." For example, "On the third day of kindergarten/I thought it was so cool/counting up to ten, making lots of friends, /and riding the bus to my school!" The ink, paint, and collage digital illustrations have the hectic feel of a kindergarten class and feature a diverse group of students. VERDICT A general purchase for libraries looking to add to their first day of school collections, this one makes a good read/sing aloud.-Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: "On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!" The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis' The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

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July 1, 2016
This "Twelve Days of Christmas" takeoff details a kindergartner's first days in her diversely populated class. The cumulative verses (sans cardinal numbers: "On the first day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / riding the bus to my school!") don't scan exactly like the original's, but this gleefully illustrated intro to school-day activities should make a rollicking read-aloud.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)