Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3^-7. Fearful of starting at a new school, Billy imagines everything that could go wrong. He might cry; he might get lost. The laces on his new shoes are hard to tie. What if . . . ? Then he cares for a little baby sparrow and helps it fly away; and he realizes that for him, too, it is time to let go and that he can be brave and take care of himself. He starts school, everyone is nice, and when the teacher asks the children to talk about their pets, Billy tells the story of the sparrow. This is less realistic than Rosemary Wells' Timothy Goes to School (1981) and Yoko (1998). Billy encounters no meanness anywhere, Mom and the teacher are perfect, friendship is easy, and everything is tied up neatly and happily in the classroom. However, the fear is real, and reading this story is a reassuring way to help children talk about their anxieties and realize that everyone is scared of starting school. As always with the Anholts, the appeal is in the elemental situation from the child's viewpoint and in the tiny narrative details and examples in the small, soft-toned ink-and-watercolor pictures. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The Anholts (The Big Book of Families) offer a poignant but reassuring treatment of the anxiety a child feels facing the first day at a new school. Billy confides his fears to the birds in his backyard; he's worried not just about getting lost, but also about the new shoes his mother has bought him, "with laces that were hard to tie." The day before the big start, Billy rescues a young sparrow that is not strong enough to fly. Using a characteristic mix of vignettes, spot art and large-scale illustrations, the Anholts affectionately juxtapose the drama of Billy's sheltering of the bird with the preparations made for school. While Billy makes the bird a nest in a shoebox, his mother is ironing and writing his name on his clothes. The parallel becomes explicit the next morning, when Billy and his mother release the recovered sparrow: "`You have to fly away,' he whispered. `You have to learn to take care of yourselflike me.'" The drawings of the school (showing children romping on the playground, the kindly teacher, the toilets, the painting area and the computer) will kindle young children's interest, addressing both the strangeness of a new school as well as its possibilities for promoting friendships and positive experiences. As school-jitters stories go, this has an advantage apart from its gracefulness: because the Anholts never spell out Billy's exact situation, their book will be equally appropriate to children facing their first day of kindergarten or moving from one school to another. Ages 4-6. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Nervous about starting school, Billy spends time talking to the birds that gather around the feeder in his yard. There he finds the "smallest, grubbiest, weediest, most dusty" sparrow and nurses it back to health. Before going to school, he releases it, saying, "You have to learn to take care of yourself-just like me." That day he makes a friend, tells his classmates about the bird, and ends up with the biggest smile around. The story finishes on an optimistic note for both the boy and the bird. The artwork is done in Catherine Anholt's familiar style-watercolor-and-ink cartoons featuring full, rounded, mostly smiling faces. The illustrations show Billy's drawings, school supplies, classroom surroundings, and finally, the boy's friends. This is a good book to dissipate children's fears about starting school and to show that the classroom can be just as enjoyable as home.-Shelley Woods, Boston Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Billy is nervous about school and worried that he might cry, get lost, or not be able to tie his shoes. While a baby bird he has found slowly gets strong enough to fly away, Billy finds the courage to go to school and make friends. Although the message is too obviously stated, young listeners will enjoy the sprightly illustrations, which are cheerful without undercutting Billy's inner struggle. From HORN BOOK Fall 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
