From first-day anxieties to class projects, here is a selection of books from our collection about the delights and challenges of school. See also these two posts with more titles: “Back to School, Part 1” and “Back to School, Part 2: Access, Equity & Inclusion.”
We strive to include as much varied racial/cultural representation as possible, with a focus on #OwnVoices, but these lists also reflect what is available on the market. These titles are only a sample of what you can find in our full collection. To see more, go to Search the Collection to type “school,” ”teacher,” “kindergarten,” “first grade,” etc.
Amik loves school
Amik tells his grandfather (Moshoom) about his school. Then Moshoom tells Amik about the residential school he went to. Amik decides to show his grandfather how different his school is. One book in The Seven Teachings Stories series. The Seven Teachings of the Anishinaabe—love, wisdom, humility, courage, respect, honesty and truth—are revealed in seven stories for children. Set in urban landscapes, Indigenous children tell familiar stories about home, school and community. --publisher
Did you hear what I heard?
"A joyful, poetic celebration of kindergarten and first grade Poet Kay Winters has written a book of zippy poems centering on the triumphs and trials of those first school years. This cheery collection covers an astonishing range of activities from the anticipated--dashing to the bus and science class discoveries--to the completely unexpected-- losing a permission slip and seeing a teacher outside the classroom. Patrice Barton's sweetly smudgy watercolor illustrations show a wonderfully diverse class of young students, making this an ideal selection for every collection"--|cProvided by publisher
A friend for Henry
Henry would like to find a friend at school, but for a boy on the autism spectrum, making friends can be difficult, as his efforts are sometimes misinterpreted, or things just go wrong--but Henry keeps trying, and in the end he finds a friend he can play with.
Goodbye, school
Franny takes her time saying goodbye to the only school she has ever attended, remembering everything that has made it special.
Lupita’s first dance / El primer baile de Lupita
Lupita is excited about dancing La Raspa, a Mexican folk dance, with her first-grade class at a celebration of Children's Day, El Día de los Niños, but just before the performance her partner, Ernesto, sprains his ankle.
The way to school
Your way to school might be by yellow bus, bicycle or car, but around the world children are also getting to class by canoe, through tunnels, up ladders, by donkey, water buffalo or ox cart. In Rosemary McCarney's The Way to School, a collection of gorgeous, full-color photographs of schoolchildren from Myanmar, Ghana, Brazil, China, Canada and beyond, readers will see that the path to school can be "long and hard and even scary" depending on the lay of the land, the weather, even natural disasters.